The World Bank under a Youth Enterprise Development Project (YEDP), is supporting the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) with 65 million US dollars to help to train the youth in entrepreneurial skills that would enable them to set up businesses of their own.
Mr Abuga Pele, National Coordinator of the NYEP, announced this in Tamale on Saturday at an induction workshop on the programme for some selected youths from the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions, who would be responsible for the implementation of the project in their various districts.
He said the project, which covered a five-year period sought to identify the potential and comparative advantage of every district in a particular business enterprise and to assist the youth to develop their skills in those areas.
He said the project would also help to address the unemployment needs of the youth for sustainable employment as it would shift emphasis from putting the youth on the Government payroll which was already overburdened.
Mr Pele said for instance the government pays over GH¢3.4 million to the about 100,000 beneficiaries under the NYEP, a situation which he described as unsustainable.
Mr Philip Akpeena, a lead consultant of the YEDP stressed the importance of the training workshop to the participants and urged them to collect the accurate data required for the successful implementation of the project.