By Rachel Quartey and Rukayatu Musah
Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang has called for a whole-of-nation approach to youth development, stressing that empowering young people requires strong collaboration among government, the private sector, and communities.
Speaking during a visit to the Ministry of Youth Development and Empowerment, which forms part of the her second round of engagements with first-time ministers, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang described Ghana’s youth as innovative and capable, and praised the Ministry’s commitment to inclusivity, particularly its 50 percent representation policy. She urged greater focus on young girls, women, and vulnerable groups, including out-of-school youth and those in informal employment.
Professor Opoku-Agyemang emphasized that youth development cuts across education, health, agriculture, and security, and called for stronger inter-ministerial cooperation. She also advocated tracking and evaluation of youth programmes, intensified public education on drug abuse prevention, and stronger protection against exploitation.
” The progress of various programs. One area I want to suggest is that we also pay attention to tracking studies. All these interventions that have been come have come before us those we are doing now. How do we measure the impact? When we are able to measure the impact then we know how to sustain and how to extend. So we know what are the applicants becoming and how do we track that we are on course. And I hear you all know your budgetary constraints and uh know that I’m making excuses but I just want us all to be very mindful about our situation. So growing the economy should be of paramount importance and taking good care of the people who grow the economy that’s what you also can mean. That’s also important.” she said.
Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment, George Opare Addo, outlined strategies to tackle youth unemployment, revealing that 22.5 percent of young people are unemployed, with higher rates among women and urban youth.
He identified agriculture, which employs 35.8 percent of the youth population, as a key job-creation sector under the government’s “Attractive Campaign.” “The agriculture system can create a lot of jobs for young people. So together with Agra we launch what we call the attractive campaign. How do we make agriculture attractive to young people so young people venture into agriculture? he said.
The Minister also announced plans to strengthen technical and vocational education, review youth employment programmes, and establish an entrepreneurship fund. Mr. Opare Addo further proposed allocating 80 percent of the Communication Service Tax to youth development and called for the swift implementation of the Labour Instrument on Domestic Work to protect young workers, especially girls.
“This is Ghana the youth ministry. I say that more or less I minister for half of this country. Because between the ages of zero to fourteen and fifteen to thirty-five is about seventy sixty-eight percent of the total population. Yes this is the ministry that is less funded. If I tell you my budget allocation for last year you would laugh at us.
But we are willing to do more and push so that we get the programs running. If we’re able to fund the YEA what we’ve been advocating for is that the eighty percent communication service tax should be given to the ministry and its agencies. The amount money per the law was to support youth development.
And if we are giving all that amount we’re able to fund YEA to run many more models the NEIP and then the National Youth Authority so that all our programs will be given the needed support and funding so that we are able to get the best results out of our young people.” he said.
Both leaders stressed that coordinated action and sustained investment are critical to securing a more inclusive and empowered future for Ghana’s youth
