Mr Seth Oteng, Executive Director of Youth Bridge Foundation (YBF), a non-governmental organisation (NGO), on Monday advised the youth to be abreast with the drawing of national budgets.
“It is imperative for young people of this nation to show much interest and commitment to the budgetary processes of Government”, he said.
Mr Oteng was speaking at a two-day workshop on budget education, to build the capacity of selected youth from Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Nothern, Upper East and Upper West Region, in Tamale on Monday.
The workshop dubbed: “Youth and National Budget; Bridging Economic Literacy Gap for Youth and National Development”, was organized by the YBF with support from the German Gesellschaft Fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit, a private international enterprise.
Mr Oteng said the workshop was also to educate participants on their responsibilities and contributions towards attaining the national development agenda.
He said the youth should be able to make inputs for drawing of future budget statements to ensure transparency and accountability.
Mr Oteng expressed worry that the youth have been marginalised in governance and called on Government to take steps to reverse the trend.
Mr Fifi Enchil, Programms Director of YBF, told Ghana News Agency that the budget litracy project had being structured in three phase.
He said the first phase was a baseline survey conducted by the Foundation to assess in general the level of awareness, knowledge and interest of the youth regarding national budgets and economic policy statements of government.
Mr Oteng said the other two distinct segments involved the NGO’s response to the findings of the baseline survey adding, "This is structured to build the capacity of the youth to enable them analyze the 2012 national budget."
Mr Oteng said “The study identified clear gaps between dictionary national budget definitions and the real understanding of national budget components among the Ghanaian youth”.