The National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) in collaboration with Asongtaba Cottage Industry and Exchange Programme (ACI&EP), have launched trades and vocation module of the NYEP with special emphasis on hairdressing. It is aimed at training about 10,000 youths in hairdressing across the country and give self employment to about 500,000 youths in various skills under trade and vocation by 2012. Mr San Nasamu Asabigi, the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, who launched it in Tamale on Friday, said the module was an enticing opportunity to establish a genuine hope for Ghanaian youth through skills training. "I see it as yet another intervention by the government to offer the youth of Ghana the career path which will enable them make a bold step into the world of work", he said. He said the NYEP in 2009 and 2010 recruitment calendar would see over 200,000 unemployed and under employed youth engaged in various sectors of the economy for a maximum period of two years. Mr Asabigi said over 120,000 youth had so far benefited from the programme to date while about 1,000,000 youth had been registered nationwide and were yet to be placed on the programme. He said the Ministry of Youth and Sports had taken the initiative to promote youth entrepreneurship by implementing the NYEP Business Proposal initiative where youths with creative business ideas would be selected, trained and setup in businesses with seed fund and logistics. The Minister stressed that a Business Development and Advisory Unit would be commissioned as part of the NYEP so that any youth with sound business ideas and wanted to setup his or her own business could be assisted through counseling, support and mentoring. He said the unit would assist the young entrepreneurs to identify businesses that they have comparative advantage in and develop a business plan for him/her as well as link the fellow to a micro financing firm for support. Dr George Agulima, Executive Director of ACI&EP said Ghana was endowed with talented youths whom he aims at transforming them into productive and skillful individuals for them to create jobs for themselves using appropriate technologies. He said the objective is to train them and set them up to be able to employ other youth, adding that the organisation had already trained about 7,000 youth nationwide in various vocations. Dr Agulima said his organization was committed to the strategic partnership with the government and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to ensure sustainable development for the country. Alhaji Haruna Abdulai Friday, the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive, commended the initiative of the ACI&EP, adding that unemployment among the youth was a global phenomenon and called on stakeholders to find appropriate solutions to it. Source: GNA