Some 132 youth in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region have become new entrepreneurs after acquiring various skills from a vocational training program organized for them by ActionAid Ghana.

The entrepreneurial training program was aimed at helping the youth create their own jobs and be self-reliant.

It covered various skills including soap making, basketry, pastry making, leather works, tiling, mobile phone repairs and satellite installation.

It was organized by Non-Governmental Organization, ActionAid Ghana, with funding support from the Medicor Foundation under a project christened; ‘Providing Employment Opportunities for Young People in Ghana’.

The project is being implemented in 3 regions and in 4 districts and also aims to train 500 youth in technical and vocational skills to help reduce youth unemployment in the country.

The selection of beneficiaries was done with the community leaders playing key a role to ensure that persons with physical challenges and women who are the vulnerable in society, were given priority.

Project Manager at ActionAid Ghana, Terence Tienaah said was hopeful that these youth can go on to impact positively on their communities with the new skills they acquired.

“If they are able to start their businesses and are able to recruit other youth to work with, gradually, the level of youth unemployment and poverty in the communities will begin to reduce”, she said.

“Gradually, communities will be economically – empowered enough to support its own youth, and this will reduce youth migration to urban centers to look for decent jobs which sometimes they don’t find”, Tienaah added.

The Upper East Regional Director of the National Youth Authority [NYA] Francis Takyi-Koranteng was optimistic that the support given to the youth will go a long way to produce a vibrantly employed youth for the country.

“People will be coming to you to enroll for apprenticeship. It is your responsibility to ensure that they become like you or even better than you so that together we can reduce the number of youth who are unemployed”, he admonished the new entrepreneurs.

Some of the newly – trained entrepreneurs who spoke to Joy News were optimistic about the impact they were going to make on society. 

One of them, Bright Akurugu who was trained in Mobile Phone Repairs and Satellite Installation said he felt rescued from poverty after having the opportunity to acquire his new skills.

“Some of us completed SHS but had no chance to move ahead [in education] due to financial problems. Now that we have this training, I don’t think we will go and sit at home”, he said.

Another trainee, Denicia Golog said she had acquired from the training, skills in soap making that will keep her employed.

“Currently, I can make bar soaps, cake soaps, liquid soaps and a lot. I am very happy about the training they have given us” she said.

Start – up kits were presented to the new entrepreneurs after the training, to enable them start their own businesses.