Former President Kufuor outdoored as patron of Ghana Job Bank Initiative
Former President John Agyekum Kufuor says the Ghanaian youth require a
great sense of creativity, entrepreneurial spirit, smartness and
employable skills to break through the high level of youth unemployment
in the country.
He urged youth to take advantage of the new mentorship programme, the
Ghana Job Bank Initiative, to enhance their employable and
entrepreneurial skills to overcome the scourge of poverty.
Former President Kufuor gave the advice when he was outdoored as the
Patron of the Ghana Job Bank Initiative at his residence in Accra on
Tuesday.
The Former President accepted to provide guidance and wise counsel to
the managers of the programme to ensure the success of the initiative.
“The youth of Ghana must believe in themselves that they can do it
because it seems everybody is looking up to the government for
everything and in this regard, it will take years for us to develop.
“I did not know anywhere on earth that people have used poverty to
overcome poverty, you overcome poverty by wealth creation and to create
wealth, you need to be smart, entrepreneurial and need investments,”
Former President Kufuor said.
The initiative, which was founded by Richard Ofori-Atta, an
entrepreneur and co-founder, Godwin Attiga, an inventor and Cyber
Security Analyst based in USA, seeks to provide entrepreneurial skills
and provide an opportunity for internship.
The programme, which would be launched in May this year, has two
modules, including Business Incubator and Smart Youth Programme, that
would offer training in software engineering, digital skills,
cybersecurity programme and open data platform to the youth free of
charge.
The beneficiaries would have an internship or hands-on training in
USA and United Arab Emirates, which would improve their competencies and
employable skills.
Former President Kufuor said in view of the high rate of youth and
graduate unemployment, it was an opportune time for the youth to avail
themselves of the opportunity and make a headway in life.
“I know there is so much unemployment in the country with almost 40
percent of our youth not employed and we even got the Unemployment
Graduates Association, and it is something that we shouldn’t be proud of
it.
“If the youth are the future of the nation and we got a situation
like this, then we have to be truly concerned as citizens or else our
future will not be too bright unless there is the solution to the
unemployment situation,” he noted.
The Former President said the government was supposed to provide the
enabling environment and set the framework, and not necessarily to do
business and urged the citizenry to take advantage and be ingenious.
“We often talk about the developed world, but when you go to those
places, you will see that it wasn’t the government that started the
wealth creation but individual citizens.
“It is the industrialists who laid the rail lines and built the skyscrapers, and also created jobs for other people,” he said.
He mentioned advanced nations such as the USA, Malaysia and South
Korea that relied on the private sector to grow their economies.
He urged the Ghanaian youth to take a cue from those countries and
have a mindset of self- initiative, instead of being dependent on the
government.
The Former President applauded some Ghanaian and African
entrepreneurs who pulled the chestnut out of the blazing fire to make a
difference in life.
He mentioned accomplished entrepreneurs like Alhaji Aliko Dangote of
Nigeria, Dr Osei Kwame Despite and his brother Ofori Sarpong who used
their ingenuity to set up a conglomerate of businesses, Sikens, Albert
Osei, Effah Edward, Jospong Group of Companies and Mrs Oppong Berko of
Manet Real Estates.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, for his part,
said the Government would focus more attention on nurturing talents,
especially in vocational and technical training.
He said developed countries like Germany, China and Turkey achieved
economic successes through skills acquisition, education and training
and added that the Akufo-Addo led government was working towards that
direction.
Madam Nesrin Bayazit, the Turkish Ambassador to Ghana, gave the
assurance that, the Turkish Government would continue to partner Ghana
Government to develop the country’s human resource and unearth talents.
She said the Turkish Government has set up a vocational training
centre that was supporting training of Ghanaian youth while some Turkish
firms had employed some Ghanaian youth.
Mr Steven Blessing Ackah, the First Ghanaian to chair the G200 Youth
Summit, and Rahim Banda were outdoored as ambassadors for the Ghana Job
Bank initiative.
Source: GNA
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