Fatou Manneh who serves as Agriculture and Environment Secretary for Foni Agency for Rural Development (FARD) is a recipient of the prestigious Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards, recognising Innovation and Leadership. The award recognizes high potential young females (below 35 years) demonstrating innovation and leadership in agribusiness. Ms Manneh received the award on 7 September 2022 in Kigali Convention Centre, Rwanda.
The VALUE4HER Women Agripreneurs of the Year Awards (WAYA) recognizes African female agripreneurs who have excelled in the agricultural value chains and have demonstrated remarkable innovation by contributing positively toward food security, climate resilience, and women and youth empowerment. The awards aim to create visibility for successful women and promote them as positive role models, trigger innovation, and spur ambition among women agripreneurs.
Fatou Manneh specialises in entrepreneurship and climate change mitigation training. She runs an enterprise called Jelmah Herbella processing locally grown herbs and cereals into teas, honey, herbal seasoning and baby food, through the use of a blended recipe that gives customers a unique taste and healthy diet.
She works with farmers to produce organic herbs on a large scale through a farmer’s platform that brings together groups of women farmers under one umbrella. Fatou encourages women to engage in permaculture, grow herbs in the backyard using car tires, turn sacks, and broken pans, and sell (Herbs & Cereal Crops) to a reliable market to earn extra income. Fatou participates in ensuring a sustainable health community through organic farming. “My enterprise contributes to unleashing the growth potentials of rural women and farmers as it contributes to the SDG 13 on climate action through climate-friendly farming,” said Fatou.
She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Development Studies and completed her master’s program in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI MILANO BICOCCA Italy. She participated in a pitching contest for start-up and scale-up for SDGs in Geneva during the Global Entrepreneurship Week in 2018 and Women in Africa WIA54, 2020 Laureates for the Gambia.
Currently, Fatou is a UNCTAD Certified trainer at the Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) in The Gambia and Climate Change Mitigation Trainer, where she focuses on training women, youth, farmers, entrepreneurs, and aspiring entrepreneurs on entrepreneurial behavioural programmers using the UNCTAD Empretec Model to impact the lives of her participants for sustainable business growth. She also works with Buzz women the Gambia an NGO that empowers women through entrepreneurship training.
FARD is very proud of her accomplishment and is optimistic that she will help the agency achieve its agriculture and environment agenda in Foni. Fatou is an inspiration to young women in Foni and FARD believes are achievements will motivate many young women to venture into agriculture and entrepreneurship.
