Govt Spends GHc84m On Poverty Alleviation

The government is spending GH¢84 million under the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) to alleviate poverty, especially among the youth, Dr Kwabena Duffour, the Minister of Finance, has disclosed.

This is because the youth constitute a strategic human resource of the nation whose contributions to socio-economic development could not be underestimated.

Dr Duffour, who was speaking at the passing-out ceremony for some 94 trainees of the LESDEP at Kumawu in the Sekyere Afram Plains District in the Ashanti Region, said the empowerment of the youth would continually feature prominently in the development agenda of the Mills administration.

The trainees, who underwent two weeks’ training in hairdressing, mobile phone repairing, barbering, catering, as well as fashion and dressmaking, were drawn from the Sekyere Afram Plains and the Sekyere East districts.

They received start-up kits, including gas cylinders, beauty care machines, motorbikes, barbering kits, mobile phone repairing kits, sewing machines and six trucks to enhance their livelihood.

The ceremony marked the first in a series of training programmes lined up by LESDEP for beneficiaries in the Ashanti Region.

Dr Duffour said LESDEP, registered under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, was being implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare and other agencies.

It has so far opened offices in all the 170 metropolises, municipalities and districts across the nation.

GNA