Youth unemployment in Ghana needs radical approach – NGO

Mr Raphael Godlove Ahenu,  Chief Executive Officer of Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF), a non-governmental organisation said, youth unemployment was a serious problem that needed a radical approach to tackle.

He emphasized the need for Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies to collaborate with Civil Society Organisations to put in place down-to-earth interventions that would help equip the youth with vocational and other skill training to make them self-reliant.

This, according to Mr Ahenu, would also reduce youth over-reliance on government for employment opportunities.

Mr Ahenu said this at the inauguration of the Kwatire-Adantia Youth in Action (KAYIA), a youth group at Kwatire in the Sunyani West District.

The association was established by the NGO to help the youth and women in the area to acquire skill training in hairdressing, tailoring, fashion design and Information Communication and Technology (ICT).

Mr Bernard Oduro Takyi, President of the Kwatire-Adantia Youth Association, said a survey conducted by the association in the two communities showed that about 70 and 80 percent of the youth in the area were unemployed.

He said the surest way of eradicating poverty in the area was ensuring that women had access to sustainable means of livelihood.

Mr Takyi said the association was collaborating with some NGOs and government organisations to support the women and the youth to go into fashion designing, gari food processing, grass cutter rearing, mushroom farming, poultry and fish farming.

Mrs Agnes Kusi, Sunyani West District Chief Executive said agro-based industries, transportation and tourism, ought to be strengthened to provide jobs for the youth.

Source: GNA