Building The Youth Must be Top Priority

Whilst Ghanaians jubilate over the enormous improvements made by this current government in other sectors of the economy, we must also appreciate the efforts of the President and his team for the employment drive it has embarked upon to propel the youth into having self-fulfillment in life .

Reliable statistics indicate that a fairly high proportion of the population which constitutes the youth in Ghana,are unemployed or under-employed .

However, since 2001, the government has attempted to address the problem of unemployment and underdevelopment, beginning with registration of about 950,000 people mainly the youth coming from different educational trades and professional backgrounds in need of employment. Initiatives such as the Skills Training and Employment Placement (STEP) programme, the National Youth Fund (NYF), the Presidential Special Initiatives (PSI) as well as various enterprises have all yielded some relative success in the area of providing self-employment opportunities for the youth.

Recently government has redoubled efforts at youth employment through the National Youth Employment Programme. The programme which is in phases will in the long run help to reduce the canker of unemployment bedeviling the economy. Phase I focuses on short-term activities aimed at creating employment opportunities to engage the youth in various fruitful ventures, whilst phase II looks at a longer term view of employment issues within the context of Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS). Youth-In-Agric-Business, Community Protection System, Vacation jobs, volunteer services, Youth-In-ICT, Waste and Sanitation Management corps and many others .

I wish to urge the private sector to help such laudable government efforts to suceed by also providing avenues youth to gain soime level of training and or employment. I also wish to advise the National Employment Task Force set up by the Presidency to implement the programme to live up to responsibility entrusted it. DCE’s working in consultation with the District Employment Task Forces, must commit to and undertake to ensure that the programme is implemented successfully and that their effectiveness as agents of the Presidency at the district level, would be measured by their ability to generate the required number of jobs and self-employment opportunities for the youth in their respective districts. I want to suggest that the government should look for partnerships that wil help sustain the funding mechanisms for the initiatives. This will help forestall any eventuality.

To end it all, I want to encourage the youth wherever they may be to take advantage of the golden opportunity offered us by this government and grab it once and for all. Ayekoo!!!!

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