LESDEP trains, equips 2,113 people in seven months in Central Region

A total of 2,113 people have so far being registered and trained in the Local Enterprises and Skills Development  programme (LESDEP), in  all the Districts, Municipals and Metropolitan assemblies of the Central  Region.

The beneficiaries, who are mainly the youth, were given training in dressmaking, hairdressing, mobile phone repairs, barbering, grasscutter rearing and photography and for periods of between three weeks to three months.

Mr  Edwin Akpeti Sawyer, Central Regional Coordinator of LESDEP, who made this known  in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Cape Coast, said a total of  659 beneficiaries from four districts would be graduating soon.

The LESDEP, which was established, last year, is a private-public initiative being implemented by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare, is to alleviate poverty, especially among the youth, through training and equipping them to set up their own businesses.

Mr Sawyer explained that after the training, each of them is presented with kit tools, which include sewing machines, embroidery machines, mobile phone repair kits, gas cylinders, ice chests, sterilizers, hair dryers, motor trolleys and tricycle vans, according to the module each one was trained in.

The Regional Coordinator, urged the youth, who are still unemployed to register with the LESDEP to enable them to acquire some skills and also get start-up tools to establish their own businesses.

Mr Sawyer said LESDEP also provides administrative support, such as project reports, market surveys bookkeeping, businesses management as well as the monitoring of the usage of training facilities.

Source: GNA