NDC affirms commitment to youth empowerment

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has tagged youth empowerment and development as one of the cardinal basis for rapid national development between 2017 and 2021.

It said if the current government was re-elected it would harness and develop the youth’s potential for national growth. This was captured in the party’s 2016 Manifesto , the foremost indigenous oil marketing company and CIMG 2015 Petroleum Company of the year.

The project seeks to sensitise the electorate on the various issues raised by political parties, the elections management body and other governance institutions. It is aimed at ensuring gender and social inclusion in national politics and to provide voice for the youth, vulnerable groups, opinion leaders and the broader spectrum of the society and to contribute to the achievement of peaceful polls.

It also seeks to create a platform to dissect the manifestoes of all political parties and provide in-depth analysis of each thematic area to the electorate to enable them to make an informed judgment.

According to the NDC, when President John Dramani Mahama is re-elected, it would increase funding for the Youth Enterprise Scheme (YES) initiative to GH?25 million a year to provide more funds to grow and develop youth entrepreneurship.

The NDC said it would enact a Youth Act to take care of emerging issues in youth development and consolidate existing related laws. In line with this, the next NDC Government would continue to invest in job creation for youth empowerment and sports development.

According to the party’s manifesto, the next NDC government would refurbish the Azumah Nelson Sports Complex in Accra to serve as a sports and recreational centre for the youth. The traditional Inter-Schools and Colleges sports programme would be revamped to help unearth the numerous talents of the youth.

The manifesto said the next NDC government would continue the empowerment of kayayei by extending the 1,000 pilot Youth Enterprise Agency (YEA) programme to cover 10.000 kayayei to provide them with alternative livelihood opportunities.

The next NDC government would roll-out a national motorized transport (tricycle) for physically challenged persons through the active collaboration with the National Federation of Disable Persons.