He said the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, led by President Akufo-Addo, had been able to lay a solid foundation for the country for a smooth economic take off, thus the need to give him another four-year term to consolidate the gains made.

The minister stated this in an interaction with the media in Tamale yesterday after meeting with various political actors in the region, including the regional executive and regional party communicators on government policies and programmes.

Engaging stakeholders

Dr Awal, who is on a week-long tour of the Northern Region, will also interact with chiefs, opinion leaders, the youth, women groups, religious leaders and the various trades associations, among others.

The Minister of Business Development, who hails from the Northern Region, said as an appointee of the President, there was the need to regularly come back home to engage with the party’s executive and party communicators at the regional and constituency levels on the polices and programmes of the government.

“It is good to come and engage the people and let them know that the President Akufo-Addo government had stabilised the economy and the next level is to move from stabilisation to the growth of the economy,” he said.

FSHS

Dr Awal said the President, during his first four-year term, had put in place a lot of pro-poor social intervention policies such as the Free Senior High School (FSHS) programme which had ensured that many more young people gained access to SHS education across the country.

He stated that the FSHS programme had been one of the many good things that had happened to this country and it must be sustained to enable many more people to benefit.

The minister of Business Development urged the people of northern Ghana to take advantage of the FSHS policy to educate their children, saying ‘‘the most important investment you can do in your child is education’’.

Supporting young entrepreneurs

Dr Awal urged the people of the Northern Region to take advantage of the various government flagship programmes such as the Planting for Food and Jobs, the One- Village, One-Dam (1V1D) policies to improve their lot.

He disclosed that the Ministry of Business Development would this year make available not less than GH¢10 million to support over 1,500 people in northern Ghana with minimum loans of of GH¢10,000 and maximum of GH¢100,000 to expand their businesses to create jobs and employ people.

The minister further indicated that about 2,000 young entrepreneurs in northern Ghana, last year benefited from about GH¢10 million to support them to expand their businesses and to employ people, adding that under his ministry’s entrepreneurship programme, last year alone, 96,000 jobs were created.

It also gave people training and funding and this year ‘‘we are going to give training to 15,000 young entrepreneurs across the country this year, and give 3,000 young people access to funding, through loans between GH¢10,000 and GH¢ 100,000, to expand their business.

New voters register

Dr Awal also used the opportunity to appeal to the people in the region to come out to register in their numbers when the exercise for the new voters register begins in April, to enable them to vote in the December elections.

He called on the media to use their various platforms to educate the people on the need to get their names onto the new voters register to be compiled by the Electoral Commission, since it was their civic responsibility to register and vote.

Mr Prince Imoro Andani, Board Chairman of Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GISDOE), who is on the tour with the Business Development Minister, urged the people of the north to look at the many interventions of the NPP government in the region and vote massively for the party so the government could continue with its good works.