Entrepreneur – Tourism can do better than $1.5 billion annually if…
Mrs. Efua Goode-Arthur, Director of the EKGS Culinary Institute, left, and Mr. Joe Donkor, Chief Director at the Ministry of Tourism are joined by others to admire the work of a graduand who made a cake replica of the FIFA World Cup that recently came to Ghana on its world tour.
It is also positioned to help address the nation’s unemployment position by equipping the youth with skills they can live by and earn decent incomes, according to Mrs. Efua Goode-Arthur, Director of the EKGS Culinary Institute in Accra, who called on the government to support players in the industry.
Mrs Goode-Arthur was speaking at the 22nd Graduation ceremony of 129 students who undertook six months skills training in cake making; cookery arts; pastry arts; balloon, ribbon and floral arts among others.
According to Mrs. Goode-Arthur, “one of the greatest problems governments of developing countries such as ours have been grappling with over the past several years is unemployment – the situation where a large chunk of the populace are not gainfully employed or not working at all, for which reason they don’t earn any income or earn just a little.”
She said the phenomenon cannot be wished away if the government, individual entrepreneurs, corporate organizations, among others, do not fashion out sound policies to give the youth a sustainable source of employment.
“It is my considered opinion that the culinary industry offers one of the most appropriate vehicles by which we can endow our youth with the skills they need to empower them for the job market and for them to be self-employed. When people are trained to acquire skills in the culinary industry, the ripple effect is so profound that it is felt in various sectors.
“Mr. Chairman, to start with, at one time as many as over 200 people can be grouped together to go through lessons in the culinary industry, and when each of these 200 people, on finishing his or her course, gets to train other people every year, one can easily imagine the impact it will have on the unemployment situation. Let me hasten to add that if each of these people work, either in the formal or the informal sectors, the tax he or she will pay will help the government to carry out its development agenda. Moreover, our farmers will have a ready market for their produce as the industry players will have to purchase farm produce, both food stuffs and vegetables, to carry on their business. What is more, the tourism industry will be raised to a higher pedestal and the government can realize more foreign exchange from it than the current $1.5 billion per year it gets. That, in turn, will resuscitate the economies of many communities and raise the living standards of people, not to talk about the potential of creating yet more employment opportunities in the crafts and artifacts sub-sectors,” she pointed out.
Remedies
A view at the graduation ceremony.
Among other suggestions, she called on the government to provide credit at affordable interest rates to practitioners in the industry to help them expand their facilities to absorb more people for training. This, she said “is against the backdrop that the traditional sources of credit, that is, the commercial banks and other financial institutions are very reluctant to deal with small and medium enterprises.”
There must also be a policy to waive taxes on the equipment for the culinary industry to enable players install state-of-the-art equipment and facilities to offer optimum training services,
Mrs Goode-Arthur announced that EKGS has put together a credit assistance programme to provide support for students desiring to set up as self-employed culinary professionals.
The Chief Director at the Ministry of Tourism, Mr. Joe Donkor, acknowledged that Ghana can come out of the increasing unemployment problem if serious attention is given to vocational training for the Youth. He said vocational training is essential for national development because it is an area where the youth can create jobs for themselves.
He also observed that Culinary Tourism “is one of the latest in a line of innovative ideas in the sector. It is also valued by tourism professionals as one of the most popular niches in the world’s tourism industry today,” adding that food can even become the central attraction for tourists who seek exotic foods.
He therefore urged cooks and food service providers to be innovative and carefully research into customer expectation and come out with interesting menus and tasty meals.
“There is the need to rediscover our old famous recipes, shape them to suit 21st Century tastes and more importantly, prepare them using local ingredients.”
Mr. Donkor praised EKGS’ for the institute’s niche for cakes and decorations reminded culinary service providers to work under hygienic settings and also be mindful of the health of their customers by preparing nutritious, balanced and healthy diets.
The graduation ceremony was held under the theme, Harnessing our Human Resource for National Development, the Role of the Culinary Industry, and chaired by the President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr. Ransford Tetteh, who commended the granduads for undergoing the skills training, explaining that they have earned for themselves great opportunities to contribute more meaningfully to national development.
Story by Isaac Yeboah/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana
