FOSDA lauds President for commitment towards youth empowerment

Mrs. Theodora Williams Anti, the Programmes Manager of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), has lauded President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for demonstrating high commitment towards youth development and empowerment.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra in reaction to President Akufo-Addo's State of the Nation Address, Mrs Anti said the President confirmed and reiterated that most of the major policies and programmes being implemented by the Government were being geared towards youth empowerment.

Mrs. Anti said even though a lot was being done by the Government to improve youth employment in the long term, short-term measures should also be addressed.

She said in 2017, the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), only employed a little over three thousand young people, which was woefully inadequate, looking at the numbers of unemployed youth in the country.

She said short term measures to get the youth employed and to improve their skills, should be taken serious.

She said the President's announcement of the Government's decision to establish the Nation Builders Corps to employ 100,000 young people in 2018 alone to assist in public sector service delivery in health, education, agriculture, sanitation and the revenue collection department of the Ghana Revenue Authority, was a great idea.

Mrs Anti, however, said they would have preferred that the Nation Builders Corps was joined to the YEA or the National Service Scheme; explaining that, there were so many youth employment bodies in the system, which were not producing the desired results.

She further appealed to the Government to ensure the passage of the Legislative Instrument (LI) for the National Youth Act.