MCES and DCEs urged to focus more on job creation.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr. Julius Debrah, has urged Municipal and District Chief Executives to focus on job creation in their various districts and municipalities, to help reduce the unemployment rate in the country.

Mr. Debrah said this at his first meeting with members of the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) at Koforidua on Wednesday.

He charged the DCEs and MCEs to encourage and support Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in their districts to grow, to help create more jobs.

Mr. Debrah urged municipal and district assemblies in the region to focus on agriculture, food processing and tourism development, where the region has comparative advantage and could become the leading region in those areas in the country.

He invited the assemblies to come on board to help in the rebranding of the region through advertisement in print and electronic media to attract investors into the region.

Each of the District and Municipal Chief Executives was asked to make a five-minute presentation on activities of their respective assemblies to develop their local economy and create jobs.

Ms. Ophelia Koomson, Birim Central Municipal Chief Executive, said under the Urban Poverty Reduction Project (UPRP), the Assembly in collaboration with the Social Investment Fund, established an industrial village at Akim Oda for carpenters and other woodworkers .

She said the Assembly supported the establishment of a Vocational Training Centre at Aboabo to train school leavers in dressmaking, baking and catering, to equip them with employment skills.

Ms. Koomson said, under the micro-finance component of the gender empowerment project, last year, 283 women entrepreneurs benefited from loans ranging from Ghc100.00 to Ghc500.00 to help them expand their businesses and employ more hands to help reduce unemployment in the municipality.