By Cecil MENSAH
(cecilm@businessdayghana.com)
A project dubbed Growing Economic Opportunities for Sustainable Development (GEOP) has kick-started in the Nima-Maamobi areas of the Accra metropolis to offer livelihood development skills to the teeming unemployed youth living in those areas.
The objectives of the three-year project funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the Christian Aid, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) is expected to promote local economic development in sustainable environment across the Western and Greater Accra regions by the end of 2019.
The project, to be rolled out in Ellembelle in the Western Region as well, will reach out to 8,734 citizens directly who will benefit from training and other job opportunities.
As part of the project the 1,472 young people will increase their net income by up to 40 percent. A total 569,311 people will indirectly benefit from improved service delivery and promote local economic development in the above mentioned areas.
The project spans February 2017 to January 2020 with a total budget of 947,000 Euros; 700,000 being provided by the EU and remaining balance of 247,000 Euro funded by Christian Aid.
Speaking at the launch Country Director of Christian Aid, Mrs. Gifty Appiah, said over 250,000 young people enter the labour market annually in Ghana, with the formal sector only engaging two percent as a result of the remaining 98 percent of these young people must survive in the informal sector of the economy or remain unemployed.
She explained that the problem is increasingly severe in the Western coastal regions and Accra sub-metros along the beach where people rely on fishing for their income.
According to her, the project will enhance the environment for improved economic opportunities for young people aged between 15 to 35 years and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) among others.
She announced that the project will specifically target young women aged between 15 to 35 in the informal sector to enable them participate more effectively in economic opportunities being offered by the project.
Launching the project, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, Minister for Inner City and Zongo Development, said the Ministry has a vision to help the youth set up their own business to help change the mindset of the youth in the Zongo and slum areas in the country.
He explained that the rising youth unemployment in the country is a national security threat so it is important to come together to arrest the canker in the nearest possible time.
According to him, these groups of young men who are eager to find something to do can be engaged by some greedy politicians to foment troubles in the country and further destabilize the peace the country is enjoying in the sub-region.
It is in view of this, he commended the GEOP project for complimenting the government’s efforts in providing jobs for these youth across the country.
He told the gathering that his Ministry’s core area now was to transform the Zongo communities by building infrastructure and other facilities that have been lacking in the over six hundred Zongo communities across the country.
