The CEO of NABCO Dr Ibrahim Anyars said the 3-year NABCO Scheme Bridges the gap between Academia and Industry by providing opportunities for young people after tertiary education to add value to themselves and become attractive to the demand side of Industry which indicates that young people from school did not adequately have the required skills and values for Industry. Dr Anyars made his remarks on a panel discussion at a Consultative Breakfast Meeting on Harmonizing Policies and Programmes on Youth Development in Ghana organized by The National Youth Authority (NYA) today, Friday, April 8, 2022, at The Alisa Hotel, North Ridge-Accra.
The meeting brought together The Nation Builder’s Corps (NABCO), The National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), The Youth Employment Agency (YEA), National Service Scheme (NSS), Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA), National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Programme (NAELP), The Ghana Scholarship Secretariat (SCHOLSEC) among others who discussed the core objectives of their agencies and how to synergize to create greater impact.
The Minister of Finance, Hon. Ken Ofori-Atta who was the special guest of honor reemphasized that entrepreneurship must be at the centre stage of job creation for Ghana’s youth and the YouStart under the Ghana CARES Programme will be the planform to provide the needed capacity; Technology, required Skills Set and Capital.
The Minister for Public Enterprises and MP for EFFIA, Hon. Joseph Cudjoe in his closing remarks stated that Entrepreneurship create jobs and not the other way round, and therefore youth programmes in harmonizing should prioritize entrepreneurship.
Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, Director General of The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) chaired the meeting and was very clear that the current older generation must stop encouraging the youth to go look for public sector jobs but go into entrepreneurship and drive value from private sector which has a much larger potential.
Representatives of The United Nations (UN) Systems in Ghana, Development Partners and Civil Society Organizations, other youth development organs were part of this meeting.
Citing the entrepreneurship initiative under the YouStart Dr Anyars hinted that the now 66,648 trainees from the NABCO Scheme can provide an immediate and ready resource to the YouStart initiative. This is in the light of their exit arrangements, but even more imperative is the quantum of investment that has been made already in these tertiary graduates.
To conclude the consultative meeting, the youth-focused agencies agreed to the need for convergence, harmonisation and the coordination of their respective mandates for greater impact.