Over 80,000 youth to be employed under NYEP – Deputy Minister
The National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) would this year employ more than 80,000 youths across the country says, Mr Pius Enam Hadzide, Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports.
He explained that the move formed part of a broader Government objective to create employment for the youth to enable them put their skills to use and contribute meaningfully to nation building.
To achieve this, he added that the Government had committed over 70 million cedis to support youth development through skills and entrepreneurial training programmes and job placements.
Mr Enam Hadzide, said this on Saturday, at a rally organised by the New Patriotic Party (NPP), at the Victoria Park in Cape Coast to thank the Region for voting massively for the Party in the 2016 polls.
He appealed to the teeming unemployed youth to be patient with the Government as it begins to roll out well thought-out strategic policy initiatives to ameliorate their plights.
“The NPP government has not forgotten its promises to the youth of Ghana…just be patient and avail yourselves for the job opportunities under the NYEP.
“We know things are difficult for many of us but remain confident in the able hands of the Government of Nana Akufo-Addo to resolve the economic imbalances that threw the economy off gear.”
Mr Hadzide further reassured the youth saying: “I am a testimony of the government’s staunch determination to support the youth in Ghana to occupy their rightful places in society”.
Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, Minister of Agriculture, on his part described the sector as the backbone of Ghana’s economy and urged all to embrace it as a viable alternative means of livelihood that had created thousands of direct and indirect jobs in the country.
Consequently, he said the government had recognised its immense contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Produce (GDP) through foreign exchange earnings, employment and food security and therefore introduced a lot interventions to sustain the sector.
He mentioned the government’s policy to subsidise price of fertilizer as highly beneficial as the nation prepared for bumper harvest through it “planting for food and jobs” Initiative.
Others were the supply of free hybrid seedling to cocoa farmers, mass Cocoa spraying as well as the improved extension services to all farmers to increase their produce to support their livelihoods while sustaining food security.
On the prospects of the fishing industry in Ghana, he said plans were far advanced to tackle all the bottlenecks that had worked against the growth of that sector.
Source: GNA