By Moses M. Tokpah, mosesmtokpah@gmail.com
KAKATA, Liberia- The Booker T. Washington Institute (BWI) is embarking on a program to enhance the skills and capacity of people in the in the carpentry industry in Monrovia and its environs.
Towards this end, BWI has begun a 42-day capacity building training for about 60 practitioners and owners of carpentry shops in Kakata, Margibi County.
The Principal and Executive Officer of the Institution, Harris F. Tarnue said
the capacity building training is part of the African Development Bank Fund for Africa Private Sector Assistance (AFDB/FAPA) initiative to address issues of climate change across the continent and Liberia in particular.
This vocational and technical training school is also building skills in the forestry sector that will help to empower small and medium enterprises in terms of furniture production and carpentry in Liberia which is part of the value change in the Forestry Development Authority function in Liberia.
He revealed that the African Development Bank has dedicated around US$7M to the Fund for Africa Private Sector Assistance project and Liberia has a grant with the AFDB.
According to him, in 2018 an initial attempt was made to launch the project and the first task was to conduct a study in Liberia to determine the number of small medium enterprises which are part of the value change in the wood industry in Liberia.
He said as the result of that, the FDA hired a foreign consultant to conduct a study and to give a pilot report on the picture of the carpentry and wood industry in Liberia and how it is impacting the forestry sector in the Country noting that the ongoing capacity building training is a product of said report.
Atty. Tarnue explained that the pilot study was conducted in Monrovia and its environs after which the consultant submitted a report that highlighted key issues in terms of mitigating the challenges in the wood industry in Liberia, trying to strengthen the small and medium enterprises as a way of improving the wood industry and trying to reintegrate it into a value change that FDA is involve with in terms of forest product.
Additionally, the BWI Principal said the survey took place in Monrovia and its environs which include the gentlemen localities thereby dividing Monrovia into six zones so as to capture every carpentry shop and furniture selling shop in order to see how well they are doing and what can be done to enhance their skill and capacity.
He said the project is looking at two key areas indicating that the first study identified critical gaps that those who own the furniture shops and carpenters who are available now need additional skills to be able to improve on what they are doing currently and as well as to be able to move them into a more organize production unit in Liberia something he added requires relevant skill to be provided.
According to Tarnue, capacity support in terms of infrastructure is intended to assist them go into real production in the Country.
He narrated that the project is targeting building the capacity of carpenters and proprietors of carpentry shops on how to do a real production, how to engage in business activity and for them to be given the needed infrastructure support respectively.
Principal Tarnue asserted that the 42-day training is phase one of the project expressing hope that with the leadership being provided by the FDA they can move from phase one to the longer phase which will be looking at building three industrial centers in and around Monrovia.
He named one of the three industrial centers as building small sawmill where plain dry concepts in the furniture production will be brought into the zones already been identified and how to help those young men and women get organize into union because the fund will only support organize groups and not individuals.
Meanwhile, the BWI Principal has said there are six modules in which the participants will be trained including the types of wood and the varieties of spices of wood that carpenters and furniture makers use to produce the products that they always have, tools management, safety of the products, marketing, labor issues, revenue issue and procurement respectively.
At the end of the training, Tarnue said he said participants will be awarded certificates of completion or achievement.
The BWI Principal assured the trainees that the training will be more practical than theoretical on grounds that they want a hands-on approach.
He thanked the Government of Liberia in partnership the African Development Bank and the Forestry Development Authority for attending to resolve some of the critical national issues in Liberia.