Asamankese (E/R), Aug. 12, GNA - Mr Mohammed Ahmed Baba Jamal, Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, has noted that, for any developing Nation like Ghana to attain a middle income status, there is the need to give attention to the growth and development of the youth.

He said it was in that regard that the Government had given approval to the National Youth Policy, which would be launched in Cape Coast on Thursday.

Mr Baba Jamal was speaking at the Eastern Regional Youth Forum, held at Asamankese on Wednesday, under the Theme, 93Building Regional Capacity for youth mobilization and effective co-ordination in a better Ghana Agenda".

He indicated that, the government had introduced a lot of interventions in the education sector, to ensure that quality education did not only become affordable but also accessible to all.

"These interventions include the construction of classroom blocks for schools under trees. Under this programme, about 80 schools in the region are benefiting from these projects".

Mr Baba Jamal said the government had also supplied free exercise books and school uniforms to pupils in public schools, adding that, all those interventions were aimed at helping to reduce the burden of parents and also to make life more comfortable for students.

He appealed to every Ghanaian child to take advantage of those interventions and enrol in the schools so that they would become more useful to their families in particular, and mother Ghana at large.

Mr Baba Jamal said the government recognized the important role the youth play in national development and had therefore strengthened the national Youth Employment Programme to make it more useful to the youth.

"Additional modules have also been introduced to widen the scope of the programme so that more of the unemployed youth could be brought on board in order to reduce the rate of unemployment and its attendant social vices".

He said the youth in mining module, which was to help reduce the activities of illegal miners in mining areas, would not only help prevent indiscriminate mining and deterioration of the environment, but would also help save lives, which could be lost through 93galamsey" operations.

"The youth in Agriculture Module also seeks to motivate the youth to enter into farming activities", he said.

Papa Adjei Kyeremeh, the Eastern Regional Coordinator of the NYC, said the vision of the council was to become a richly endowed public sector youth development service delivery organization, that could sufficiently, provide for all the developmental needs of the youth of the country.

He called on Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives to help promote youth development work in the region.

Papa Kyeremeh appealed to government to factor youth development work into the strategic plans of the assemblies with budgets, to supplement the budget the central government had for the youth development work.