MTN launches 2019 edition of Y'ello Care

MTN Ghana has launched this year's edition of 21 days of Y'ello Care, an annual staff volunteering programme that runs across the MTN Group within the period of June 1 and June 21 every year.

It is an opportunity for the MTN staff to render voluntary services in communities to enhance residents’ living conditions.

Instituted 12 years ago, the programme has grown to become one of the key and exciting activities on the communication giant’s calendar.

The theme chosen for this year's programme is "Creating a Brighter Future for Our Youth".

Nii Adotey Mingle, MTN General Manager for Northern Ghana launching the Y’ello Care in Kumasi, said this year's event was targeting the youth - the greatest asset of every nation.

"Not only are the youth regarded as future leaders, they are actually the greatest investment for a country's development and this can only happen when the youth are adequately empowered as agents of development," he observed.

He said the programme would focus on equipping the youth with employable skills as a means of addressing youth unemployment, indicating that skills deficit had been identified as one of the key factors contributing to the problem.

He said it was important to empower the youth who were the backbone of the country and this needed the support of Corporate Ghana to achieve their potentials.

A well-resourced and empowered youth of any nation, he said, would propel economic empowerment and reduce the rate of poverty at a significant level.

"We will be training 1,000 youth across the country in various skill acquisition in vocations including computer programming, leather works, beads making among others," he hinted.

To help set up the beneficiaries and sustain their trade, MTN would go further to provide training in digital marketing, financial management, project management and customer service management.

This, he noted, would be the main campaign for this year and it would be implemented in partnership with the National Youth Authority (NYA).

"Senior Managers of MTN will mentor 50 young Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) with startup companies on digital opportunities and also have a one-on-one coaching session with them under the Bright Young CEOs Digital Summit and Coaching Initiative," he added.

As part of the programme, MTN employee volunteers in the Northern Region would educate the youth in selected institutions on substance abuse and its negative impact on society.

This would be done in partnership with the Narcotics Control Board (NACOB) and the Pharmacy Council.