Mr Ebow Nyankah, a youth activist and member of 101 Young African Leaders, at the weekend advised Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to acquire loans from banking institutions to fund their local development projects.
He said the assemblies could use their common fund as a guarantee or security for such loans.
Mr Nyankah gave the advice when he presented a paper on indiscriminate economic policy at a global youth service day held at the Sunyani
Polytechnic. It was organized by Youth Realities Network, a Non-Governmental Organization.
The global youth service day is celebrated annually across the globe where millions of young people gather, identify and find solutions to
problems that confront their development.
Mr Nyankah who is a staff of the Techiman Branch of the Agricultural Development Bank, noted with concern that community development would continue to be a mirage if district and municipal assemblies over-rely on the common fund for the execution of projects.
He said banks across Ghana were strategizing as to how to increase the number of corporate customers and that assemblies could acquire loans from those banks under favourable terms.
Mr Nyankah noted that the government would also reduce expenditure on the district assemblies since they would be self-financing much of their projects, adding "increase in revenue and decrease in expenditure will mean
more money for accelerated self development".
Mr Ernest Aseidu Odei, a youth consultant and leader, explained that the Network since its inception three years ago, had focused on youth and community development especially at the grassroots and mentioned education, mentoring and skills development of some of the major challenges that faced the present generation.
He called for the establishment of a national youth policy so that the youth would be involved in policy making and implementation. The policy, Mr Odei noted, would also enable the youth to hold the government accountable.
He said the current generation was bequeathed with a number of talents but the lack of political will on the part of successive governments had denied majority of the youth to unearth such talents to acquire gainful
employment.
He, however, appealed to educational authorities and other relevant institutions to revise the educational curricula and modules so that priority would be placed on practical rather than theory to prepare the youth adequately for the future.