A deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning reiterated the Mills-led administration is committed to creating job opportunities and skills sets for the youth as it focuses on tackling unemployment in the country. Mr. Fifi Kwetey said government wants to ensure that the youth become entrepreneurs instead of chasing after non-existent jobs in the formal sectors. “As we are entering more and more into an oil era, it is important to deploy the resources that can enable us rise up to the challenge. Not just the challenge of the environment but also be able to create opportunities for young people,” he said. Mr Kwettey was speaking on Joy FM’s Supper Morning Show Friday to throw more light on the supplementary budget presented to parliament by the Finance Minister Dr. Kwabena Duffuor on Thursday. Dr. Duffuor had indicated in his speech that “in furtherance of the job creation agenda, a new youth employment programme, known as the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), has been commissioned by His Excellency, President John Evans Atta Mills, and is aimed at empowering the youth through the acquisition of skills supported by equipment and machinery.” Government also made an allocation of GHS20 million to the ECO-Brigade which has been instituted to clean up the country’s beaches. The modules under National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) will also benefit from the budget as an amount of GHS10 million has been allocated. Responding to accusations that government has given more resources to job creation projects it has instituted to the detriment of projects such as the NYEP which was created by the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Mr Kwettey said there is no truth in that except that government wants a paradigm shift from employing people to equipping them with skills so that they can employ others. Explaining the difference between the LESDEP and NYEP, Mr Kwettey said ”whiles the NYEP is all about modules that employ people, LESDEP is looking much more at a change in paradigm; moving you away from being employed to providing you with the kind of skills – technical and entrepreneurial – that can enable you to really be in charge of your destiny.” He said government sees the NYEP as a transitional programme for those employed under it whiles the LESDEP will offer them a permanent job opportunity. He further denied rumours that government has instituted the LESDEP and other projects to employ its footsoldiers ahead of the 2012 General elections, insisting that youth unemployment has assumed a global dimension and it should not be underrated as it has contributed to the recent uprising in some parts of the Arab world. Mr Kwettey said “if there is an initiative in place not just to create jobs and pay, but actually to enable young people to be able to employ themselves, to be able to contribute to the national economy, to also become employers, to also create opportunities for others to be employed, I think it is laudable.” Story by Derick Romeo Adogla/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana