Mr Francis Ganyaglo, Kpando District Chief Executive said on Monday that the �Better Agenda� development programme fashioned by the present government is yielding dividend in multiple folds across all sectors.
He mentioned sectors including education, especially school infrastructure, health, income generation, youth employment, road networks and the provision of electricity, water and sanitation.
Mr Ganyaglo made this observation at the opening of a five-day training programme for 60 beneficiaries under the Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) at Kpando. The training is aimed at enhancing the professional competences and market values of beneficiaries to create employment and generate income.
Beneficiaries are drawn from the catering industry, hairdressing, mobile phone assembly/ repairs, bead manufacturing, fashion designing, intra-city goods transport, barbering, motor and bicycle repairing.
LESDEP is a unique public business model for community development that seeks to create sustainable local businesses to get the youth into business entrepreneurship to help contribute their quota to national development.
The nobility is that beneficiaries would receive a set-up tool kit and are required to repay investments made through negotiations after undergoing training. Mr Ganyaglo said its focus is to empower the youth to take up the opportunity of becoming self-reliant.
He said default repayment would not be treated with �kids� gloves� as every attempt within the remit of law would be made to recoup all investments. He expressed the hope that the scheme would succeed in the district.
Ms Akua Sena Dansua, Minister of Tourism and Member of Parliament (MP) for North Dayi said government�s development agenda was on course and that for the first time in the annals of Ghana, development was touching and benefiting the core of the society.
She said the well-thought through LESDEP scheme trained artisans and craftsmen/women already on the job who needed support would be transformed into mastercraftsmen/women with the capacity to employ others and earn income.
Mr Harry Afenyo, Kpando District Coordinator of LESDEP said the scheme was youth-friendly and expected them to take advantage of the opportunity to become self-sufficient than chase none-existent jobs in the cities.
He said beneficiaries were compelled to open and operate bank accounts to lodge monies realised to defray the cost of the supply of tools and to serve as a revolving fund towards facilitating the funding of teeming youth who were yet to join the scheme.
Ms Helena Baka, a participant commended the government for evolving the programme that was expected to place beneficiaries on a path to self-reliance, and urged her colleagues to justify their inclusion by making it a success.
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