Sports Minister Hosts UN Secretary-General's Envoy

Mr Isaac Asiamah, the Minister of Youth and Sports, says Ghana's relatively youthful population boom should be an encouragement for enhanced development, rather than neglecting the explosive, to become a major threat to national security and governance.

He said the greatest challenge facing the country and the African continent as a whole, was the teeming youth unemployment, although Ghana was pursuing practical interventions, including; the Free Senior High School Programme, Skills development through the vocational and technical sectors, and the Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) to train and support the vulnerable and the youth.

The Youth and Sports Ministry, said other programmes such as the 'One District, One Factory,' would create job opportunities for especially the youth at the local levels, to secure a better future for young people and their dependents.

Mr Asiamah made these remarks when Ms Jayathma Wickramanayake, the UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, called on him at his office in Accra.

He said the Ministry has started the construction of multi-purpose sporting centre, where diverse activities including counselling sessions and varied sporting activities would be held to engage the youth and also empower them with some knowledge at their leisure.

He explained that in December 2017, the President, Nana Addo-Dankwa Akufo Addo outlined strategies to be implemented at the level of the Presidency, to guide the country's efforts in harnessing the 'demographic dividend', which, referred to the opportunity to tap into the productive population for economic growth.

The President, he said, termed this as the 'Strategic Roadmap for Harnessing Demographic Dividend in Ghana', and this road map was built on four main pillars which involved the economy, education, health and good governance.

He congratulated Ms Wickramanayake on her current appointment, and her tremendous advocacy role in promoting issues on young people across Africa.

Ms Wickramanayake, thanked the Minister for the warm reception, and commented Ghanaians for the overwhelming welcome she had earlier on received on her arrival at the Kotoka International Airport, which sent a strong signal to the world that Ghana's youth were rallying behind her to advocate a change.

She acknowledged the fact that Africa, and for that matter Ghana, had a relatively youthful population, but the analysis of the country's population presented a crisis or an opportunity for the nation depending on how it was tapped into.

She promised to raise all the pertinent issues on youth development at the higher levels at the UN to bring about the needed change.

Ms Wickramanayake was later led by Mr Niyi Ojuolape, the Country Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), to the Agbobloshie market in Accra, where she interacted with members of the Kayayie (female head porters) Association, most of who were beneficiaries of various skills empowerment training at the centre.

The members continuously get access to sexuality and other legal education at the centre, to be able them to make lifetime choices and insist on their rights.

She also visited the privately owned Future Friends Academy, which was a crèche that provides supportive services to children of the Kayayie, while they went out to work.

Ms Wickramanayake encouraged the women to make good use of the information and skills they had acquired from the resource centre for the enhancement of their lives, and also to stand for their rights at all times.

GNA
By Christabel Addo, GNA