NPP to set up Youth Development Authority

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is to set up a Youth Development Authority (YDA) to harmonies and coordinate government-sponsored youth initiatives and policies.

The NPP’s youth agenda focuses on establishing a Youth Enterprises Fund (YEF) that will provide funding and tax incentives to young entrepreneur and business development services to encourage them to initiate start-ups.

The NPP stated in its Election 2016 Manifesto made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

The publication of the manifesto is captured under the “GNA Tracks Election 2016 Project”, being funded by GOIL, the foremost indigenous oil marketing company and CIMG 2015 Petroleum Company of the year.

The project seeks to sensitize the electorate on the various issues raised by political parties, the elections management body and other governance institutions.

It aims at ensuring gender and social inclusion in national politics and to provide voice for the youth, vulnerable groups, opinion leaders and the broader spectrum of the society, and to contribute to the achievement of peaceful polls.

Another objective of the project is to create a platform to dissect the manifestos of all political parties and provide in-depth analysis of each thematic area to the electorate to enable them to make an informed judgment.

The NPP said if elected to form the next government; it will allocate 30 per cent of the required 70 per cent of Government-funded contracts to entities owned by women, persons with disability and young persons.

The NPP would develop industrial parks in all regions targeting young Ghanaians, who start or wish to start small businesses, to provide them with access to work spaces, equipment and basic services, including electricity and water.

The NPP would introduce a tax credit and other incentives for companies that hire young graduates from tertiary institutions.

With regards to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) the NPP would concentrate in the training of the youth to create job avenues for local companies.

Again, an NPP Government would institute a Buy-Local policy for Government agencies with regards to ICT to ensure that applications and software were procured from local ICT firms.