Gov’t committed to youth empowerment – Sunyani MCE

The Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, Ansu Kumi, has reiterated the government’s commitment to empowering the youth to take their rightful place in society.

According to him, the introduction of programmes such as the Nation Builders Corps, the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme as well as the emphasis being placed on Technical and Vocational Education and Training in the current curriculum for schools point to the NPP government’s resolve toward youth development.

Mr Ansu Kumi said this while inaugurating the 40-member African Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (YES-Africa) organizing committee of the Sunyani Youth Development Association (SYDA) in Sunyani last Tuesday.

YES-Africa
The African Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (YES-Africa) is a continental development project that focuses on raising youth entrepreneurship awareness and top-notch engagement to help actualize concepts of many youths that have the potential to impact Africa’s development.

This project focuses on bringing together African leaders, youth ministers, development partners, businesses, entrepreneurs, etc to create room for a broader consultation and access to support for most youths who have interest to become great entrepreneurs to help reduce unemployment on the African continent.

This summit would be made up of workshops on entrepreneurship development, developing football entrepreneurs, coaching and mentoring sessions, grand expo and other interactive sessions for connections and links creation.

YES-Africa looks at targeting 60% females as against their male counterparts. 58% women in Africa choose to become entrepreneurs but unfortunately their profit margins are far below their male counterparts due to lack of capital, discrimination and dearth of collateral (The World Bank, 2018).

This summit therefore would raise the issue of women entrepreneurship and the need to identify and support women entrepreneurs in Africa to enable their businesses to get the needed expansion and growth.

The Sunyani MCE noted that the youth are confronted with enormous socio-cultural and economic challenges even though successive governments have attempted to address them through various policies and programmes.

He congratulated members of the committee for making time to champion the course of the compatriots and pledged the continuing support of the Sunyani Municipal Assembly toward their activities.

Irregular migration

Atta Akoto Senior, President, Sunyani Youth Development Association, for his part, explained that the setting up of the YES-Africa organizing committee was occasioned by the association’s passion to avert the dangerous roaring tide of irregular migration that confronts Ghana and Africa as a whole due to the lack of job opportunities and access to well-paying decent jobs.

He noted that the committee which would be operating from Sunyani symbolizes the need to reverse the energies and fearlessness of the youths in the Bono Regions to engage in entrepreneurship.

“It is on record that Bono youths lead the league of irregular migrants in Ghana. The focus is to channel their energies to be daring in doing business through support and encouragement. If the war on irregular migration is to be won, then there is the need to engage our youths in entrepreneurship ventures”, he revealed.

“This summit is therefore positioned to make the Bono Regions a hub of Ghana’s youth entrepreneurship as a means of halting the menace of irregular migration that has engulfed the region,” he added.

About SYDA

SYDA exists to provide a platform for youth, community and global development through selfless participation of the youth in activities that enhance wealth creation, peace sustainability, innovations and among others to make the world a better place.

It operates in three thematic areas which include; Youth Development Advocacy, Community Development Advocacy and Youth Empowerment through Skill Training. This project factorises all these cardinal operational areas of SYDA.