600 RECEIVE SKILL TRAINING AT BUIPE (PAGE 35, SEPT 20, 2010)

MORE than 600 young people have received skills training under the auspices of the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) and the Rural Enterprises Project at Buipe in the Northern Region.
The participants were trained in grass cutter and guinea fowl rearing, cassava processing, soap making, batik, tie and dye production and fashion designing.
The training programme is part of a major initiative to build the capacity of young people, particularly women, to engage in productive activity that will earn them income.
The head of the BAC in the Central Gonja District, Ms Rashida Alhassan, made this known at the passing-out parade of 75 newly trained youth in Buipe.
She said 24 community-based skills training and management training programmes had been designed by the BAC to empower the youth to be self-employed.
Ms Alhassan said the centre had put together a graduate apprentice start-up kit, which is presented to the trainees to enable them to start their own businesses upon graduation.
She also stated that some financial institutions had been brought on board to support graduate trainees who needed funds to start their own businesses.
“These institutions have agreed to provide soft loans for the trainees as most of them attribute lack of finance for their failure to do their own businesses,” she stated.
Ms Alhassan, therefore, entreated the trainees to draw effective business plans that would qualify them to receive the needed financial assistance to expand their businesses.
She also commended the district assembly for its immense contribution to the training programmes.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Central Gonja, Mr Salifu Issifu Be-Awuribe, said the training was in line with the government’s policy to empower the youth.
“This government is very much prepared to support any initiative that would reduce unemployment and take our youth from the streets and from organised crime,” he stated.
The trainees appealed to the government to explore ways of encouraging Ghanaians to purchase made-in-Ghana goods.
The trainees said they ran at a loss anytime they produced items that were not patronised by the public.