<<Print>>

The Vice President, John Dramani Mahama has debunked claims being peddled in the country that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) led by President John Atta Mills had done nothing to help the citizenry in the country in terms of concrete development. According to him, developmental projects were ongoing in all the 10 regions in the country and that if the critics opened their eyes and mind, they would see enormous developmental projects and initiatives littered around the country. One of such initiatives, he mentioned was the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) established to help the youth in the country to get employable skills. Speaking at the commissioning of locally assembled Dongfeng trucks at Baatsona in Accra over the weekend, Mr. Mahama encouraged the unemployed Ghanaian youth to take advantage of opportunities created by LESDEP to improve their livelihood. The Vice President hinted that government had allocated GH84 million in the 2012 composite budget to boost the LESDEP programme. This, according to him was expected to enable LESDEP meet its target of creating more job opportunities for the nation�s idling youth. �Today, what we are telling the young people is that you can establish your businesses to employ people and become the employer and not the employee�, he observed. Advising the youth, the Vice President stated that �many of the most successful people in this country didn�t start their businesses with big loans from big banks and I believe you too can do it�. He asked all unemployed Ghanaians who were interested in starting their own small scale enterprises to register with LESDEP to achieve their goal. The Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo disclosed that about 6000 assorted equipment had been distributed to beneficiaries of the programme. According to him, majority of the beneficiaries were into mobile phone repairs which were fetching them enough income.