The Deputy Minority Leader in Parliament and Member of Parliament (MP) for Ellembelle, Mr. Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has launched the Skill-Up Ellembelle Initiative aimed at empowering and equipping the youth of the District with the requisite skills to shape their future.
He noted that the office of the MP had over the years organized various programmes to ensure that the youth in the District who are future leaders were properly trained and equipped with the skills needed to shoulder the responsibilities of the future.
The Skill-Up programme is a scheme tailored to offer comprehensive skills training in a wide range of hands-on trades, including Mechanics, Carpentry, Electronics/Electricals, Welding, Masonry (Building and Construction), Hairdressing and Fashion Design.
At the launch, Mr Kofi Buah said over the years, such programmes have had a remarkable impact in empowering the youth and observed that recent reports had highlighted the gravity of the situation, with alarming statistics, revealing a rising number of unemployed individuals, especially young people.
The Deputy Minority Leader said unemployment had become a national security issue as recently announced by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana).
‘This point was further amplified in the Ghana 2022 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) Third Quarter Labour Statistics by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) released on 3rd May 2023 that about 1.76 million persons were unemployed in the third quarter of 2022 alone. In our own District, unofficial figures for youth unemployment are estimated at about 50%’.
Mr.Kofi Buah noted that the alarming figures for unemployment posed a security risk to all stakeholders.
The Launch of the Skill Up Ellembele programme was aimed at recruiting and training thousands of young people in various skills to empower them with the needed entrepreneurial management skills and financial support to establish their own businesses.
‘The empowerment of our youth with valuable skills that lead to self-reliance and job opportunities is of utmost importance,’ the MP said.
These trades have been carefully selected based on their demand in the local market and their potential for job creation.
‘Through ‘Skill-Up,’ we envision fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and driving economic growth, enabling our youth to seize opportunities and contribute meaningfully to our society.’
In addition to the training, the mechanism would ensure collaboration among participants, leading them to establish enterprises or companies capable of drawing in funds and support.
Mr Kofi Buah announced that the initiative had been endorsed by the Ghana Enterprise Agency and the Rural Enterprise Programme.
He has also partnered with vocational institutions like Kimtech, St. Theresa’s NVTI Dolphin, private enterprises and craft persons every year to train young people.
‘What is different is that we have learnt lessons from our past experiences that will guide this new programme. For Example, we are prioritizing those who voluntarily took the first step to start a craft,’ he disclosed.
The programme would also put them in groups to register and establish their own businesses, give them additional training in Enterprise Management and support them in collaboration with other stakeholders to provide funding support to expand their businesses.’
He reminded the privileged future entrepreneurs of the District to note that the programme was ultimately designed to empower them.
Mr. Kofi Buah asked the youth of Ellembele, who possessed immense potential, waiting to be unleashed to capitalize on the opportunity of a lifetime to skill up and be empowered.
‘We estimate that we will spend about half a million cedis every year to sustain the training of the targeted 1000 trainees.
‘We also estimate the cost of the machinery and tools needed to establish the various business enterprises after they graduate to be about two million Ghana Cedis, this clearly is a huge financial venture that will require the support of all stakeholders who believe in youth empowerment.’
The MP called on the youth for support as’ we embark on this mission to Skill Up Ellembele by skilling up the youth to Collectively transform lives and empower youth.’
Source: Ghana News Agency