Ministry to engage youth as mobile phone technicians

Wa, Aug. 13, GNA - The Ministry of Youth and Sports is collaborating with Roagam Link, a private company, to train and deploy 5,000 young people to repair, assemble and sale mobile phones and associate products throughout the country.

This initiative, which is one of the government's job creation programmes, would afford successful trainees the opportunity to set up in various parts of the country to provide services to clients. Mr. Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo, Acting Minister of Youth and Sports, said this at Wa on Wednesday during the national celebration of International Youth Day which was under the theme; "sustainability: our challenge, our future".

The day was instituted by the United Nations to recognize and appreciate the role of the youth in the development of their respective countries and the world at large. The celebration was further used to appreciate the challenges that confronted the youth in their attempt to develop themselves and to contribute to the development of the nation. Mr. Pelpuo told the youth to respect and hold their traditional institutions and values in high esteem as any attitude that ran contrary to that would make the future of the nation bleak. He cited China, India, Malaysia and South Korea as some of the countries that had reached high levels of development out of respect for their traditional institutions and systems.

Before a sound youth policy could be implemented, he said, the government had realized the necessity for a modern dynamic and development oriented youth law that would provide the legal frame work within which all youth activities would operate. Action has therefore been initiated to review a draft Youth Law to take on board emerging ideas that had rendered the NRC decree 241 of 1974 obsolete.

Mr. Pelpuo said he was optimistic the law that would give legal backing to the youth policy would be ready for implementation by the end of the year.

Mr. Mahmud Khalid, the Upper West Regional Minister, appealed to the youth to use homes, mosques, churches, streets and markets as avenues to campaign against the degradation, littering and pollution of the environment.

"Let us collectively evolve strategies that will let the youth focus on issues concerning national development and not to dissipate their talents and energies on trivial issues". He advised the youth to avoid conflicts that were usually promoted by people with dubious ambitions as they had the potential of tearing communities apart.

Mr. Makane Kane, Resident Representative of UNFPA who delivered the UN Secretary-General's message, appealed to the youth to adopt good morals, make education their priority and stay away from social vices such as cyber fraud, bribery, armed robbery and other undesirable activities that did not help in their development.