Monrovia – The President of Grand Bassa County Association in the Americas has ended a successful trip to Liberia, where he introduced two investors to the Grand Bassa Community College and held discussions with top government officials.
Report by Alpha Daffae Senkpeni, [email protected]
Jerome Z. Gayman said the trip was continuation of what the association began in 2008, which was bringing friends and partners to Grand Bassa to “highlight the importance of the culture, the society, the plight and what we can do to enhance the life of our people”.
While in the country, Gayman also met members of the county legislative caucus, elders, prominent people and the Foreign Minister Gbehzongar Findley to foster the work of the GBCAA.
“Before the Ebola outbreak, we talked about investment in the county, improving the community college, enhancing the health care service, and provide jobs,” he said of his mission to fulfil some promises the association made to the people of Grand Bassa County.
The two partners’ visits were based on the invitation of Dr. Daniel Gbesaygee, President of the GBCC who had sought international partnership for the college, he said.
Marty Riche, Director of Aquaculture Without Frontier (AWF) and Maryam Murbe, Chief Executive Officer of Solar Afric Incorporated, were presented to the GBCC on April 27.
Madam Murbe is looking to potentially setup a subsidiary of her company, which has its headquarters in Florida, USA, in the county and explore manpower potentials of the locals.
“The community college, being the incubator of knowledge, I know it is the ideal place where her company can recruit trainees without going through the headache of hiring agency,” the GBCAA said.
“For the long term, the firm has its eyes on starting a manufacturing plant to produce solar energy products and its sees the GBCC as a means of recruiting trainees, so her trip was to see if the college was ready.”
While in Buchanan, Mr. Gayman also introduced the guests to Superintendent Janjay Beipay, who showed full support for the plan and admonished the investors to fast track the implementation.
Murbe then promised to return to the country before the start of the next school semester in September this year to develop a curriculum and start recruiting the first 25 solar technician trainees.
“So over the next six to seven months, the trainees would have been certificated as solar technicians to begin line work for the start of the manufacturing plant,” Gayman said.
For Dr. Richie, he has his eyes set on exploring the potential of aquaculture at the community collge although his organization basically works with full scale universities across the world.
The GCCAA president said his leadership was able to convince Dr. Richie about the potential of the GBCC, citing its good location and a prospect of becoming a four year college in the next foreseeable future.
The aquaculture expert will help the college setup its aquaculture curriculum – modify for a community college level – start training students in fish farming, developing fish ponds, and help elevate the college into becoming a reference institution for studying aquaculture and fish farming in the West Africa region.
However, developing the curriculum happens to be the first objective for Dr. Richie, who told FrontPageAfrica the sector has a long history in Liberia dating back to the 1960s when Peace Corps introduced the concept to locals.
“And it was flourishing at the time but then the war came and most of the knowledge people had, the infrastructure, the ponds, and everything that was in place is not there anymore,” Dr. Richie said.
“As far as we know there is no any strong program (aquaculture) in Liberia, so we want to begin by training individuals to be ready for the work force and we think there’s tremendous potential for aquaculture here in Liberia, not just to feed people and economic empowerment particularly for women and youth but also for exports.”
“With all the water resources, this is the perfect place for it, so we are going to start small and start training technicians.”