Youth urged to take advantage of government's initiatives

Kumasi, Aug. 12, GNA - Mr Kofi Opoku Manu, Ashanti regional Minister, has urged Ghanaian youth to take advantage of government's interventions designed to help them to become economically self-supporting. Skills training under the National Youth Employment Programme and the Youth in Agriculture Programme are some of the interventions he spoke about.

Mr Opoku-Manu was speaking at a ceremony held by the National Youth Council (NYC) to commemorate this year's International Youth Day in Kumasi on Wednesday under the theme: "Sustainability: Our Challenge, Our Future."

The Regional Minister repeated government's resolve to deal with the unemployment situation in the country. Mr Anthony Baah, the Kumasi Metropolitan Youth Organiser, said as part of effort to make young people more socially responsible, a total of 1,204 youth groups had been nurtured in the metropolis. He said the groups engaged in activities such as clean-up exercises, donation to destitute homes and orphanages as well as to historic sites.

The ceremony was also used to create platforms for the education and discussion of health issues, marriage, business management and financial support schemes. Mr Baah noted that the youth of today were plagued by many challenges and indicated that they had to be adequately equipped to deal with the above challenges.

This, he said, called for closer collaboration between the NYC, Civil society organizations and other governmental agencies in youth development programmes to help the youth to become real assets to the nation.

Mr Baah said it was important that Ghana moved quickly with the formulation and implementation of a National Youth Policy. He also appealed for the provision of basic sporting equipment at the Kumasi Youth centre built by the Chinese.