Accra, May 28, GNA - Government has set up a five-member committee to review the Draft Youth Bill to make it satisfy the current needs of the youth, Alhaji Muntaka Mohammed Mubarak, Minister for Youth and Sports, said on Thursday.

He said the review was also to make for the creation of a Commission on Youth to give the National Youth Council the autonomy to perform its functions effectively. The Minister disclosed this at a Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and You-net Youth forum in Accra to assess the status of the National Youth Policy and to chart the way forward.

Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak said the move was to place the National Youth Council appropriately within the matrix of youth development agenda and to make it the fulcrum of energizing the youth to participate fully in the country's development efforts. He said government had begun a process aimed at redefining the National Youth Employment Programme to make it focus on delivering the best results.

Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak said in view of this, government was undertaking reforms within the institutions spearheading the youth development agenda and also reviewing the legal and policy framework to ensure that the development objectives set the youth were achieved and sustained.

He said the government recognized the potential of the youth and the need to harness it for national development adding that, the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) was an element in engaging the youth toward achieving that aim. He said government had embarked on efforts to address the challenges confronting the effective implementation of the NYEP to ensure more personnel were roped into it to achieve a qualitative outcome. Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak challenged the youth to be serious with their various endeavours to enable them to achieve the best results in life. Mr Prosper Hoetu, Executive Director of You-net, a youth development oriented organization, called on the government to invest more in the youth. He said the destiny of the country was dependent on its youth policy and pledged the commitment of the youth towards the implementation of the policy.