The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Evalue-Ajomoro Gwira Constituency in the Western Region and the Minister of State at the office of the Senior Minister, Mrs. Catherine Abelema Afeku has enrolled over 500 young men and women into her initiative dubbed "MP's Vocational and Skills Training Programme".

The programme is aimed to empower the youth to become financially self-independent and empower others.

The beneficiary youth will be trained in the area of dressmaking, hairdressing, decoration, pedicure, manicure, make-ups among others.

The MP's programme has already trained over 400 youth and they were graduated last year.

Addressing the colourful ceremony, the initiator, Mrs. Catherine Afeku emphasized that empowering youth has always been one of her key plans to reducing unemployment and creating jobs in the Evalue-Ajomoro Gwira Constituency.

She said the beneficiary youth were not selected based on their political colours but they were only indigenes of the Constituency.

Mrs. Afeku also urged them to take advantage of this rare opportunity to become financially self-sustaining and try as much as they could to contribute their quota to the development of Evalue-Ajomoro Gwira Constituency and Ghana at large.

She, therefore, encouraged them to believe in themselves and stay away from immoral behaviour that could prevent them from achieving their goals.

She took the opportunity to appeal to the gathering to rally behind her and her government by retaining them to do more. She pledged to continue with the programme to empower more youth.

On his part, Mr. Bright Wireko Brobey, the Deputy Minister for Labour who was the guest of honour admitted that he being a man and an MP has not been able to achieve what Mrs. Catherine Afeku has achieved within the past past three years.

He, therefore, called on the people of the area to take care of Mrs. Afeku to support more youth.

He disclosed that he sees Catherine Afeku as a big asset to the constituents and charged other MPs to emulate her leadership style.

He promised the ministry's readiness to support the MP's initiative to sustain.

He said the Akufo-Addo-led government was poised to addressing unemployment situation in the country and called on the good people of Evalue-Ajomoro Gwira Constituency to give for more years to reduce the unemployment situation drastically.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the area, Hon. Frank Okpenyen lauded Catherine Afeku for the programme to reduce the unemployment situation in the area.

He said the Assembly would continue to offer support to the programme to enroll more young men and women.

He described Catherine Afeku as a destiny helper and added that she was a God-sent MP to help the teeming unemployed youth.

The MCE seized the opportunity to highlight some projects President Akufo-Addo together with the MP has done in the Constituency for the past three years.

He mentioned the establishment of DVLA office complex, construction of Sports stadium at Axim, construction of Fishing Harbour at Axim, establishment of Electricity Company of Ghana office at Axim, elevating the Municipality into Cocoa District, provision of scholarship package to uncountable students, cassava processing factory under 1D1F.

He said almost fifty years now the Gwira area in the Constituency has not seen asphalted road but said currently the government was constructing the road in that area.

Talking about the construction of the Axim Sea Defence, the MCE threw a challenge to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to come out with a valid document on the project that suggested that they were the one who started it.

According to him, the contract documents he is privy to was signed on September 6th, 2018 during this current NPP administration.

He added his government has constructed a ceremonial park at Axim for social gathering.

The MCE ended his speech by saying that the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections were going to be a thanksgiving ceremony for which the people were going to reward President Akufo-Addo and Mrs. Catherine Afeku.

On his part the the Chief of Ampenyi, Nana Kwesi Appesi said indeed Axim had lost in terms of development in years past but now the developmental projects were all over the vicinity for people to verify.

He, therefore, appealed to the good people to vote massively for President Akufo-Addo and Catherine Afeku for them to continue with their works they were doing for Evalue-Ajomoro Gwira and Ghana as a whole.

The NPP Western Regional Chairman, Mr. Francis Ndede Siah commended Catherine Afeku for such an initiative and admonished the constituents to continue to have absolutele faith in her and accord her the maximum support.

He said the MP has chalked done a lot for her people and emphasized that he was not surprised nobody was contesting her in their Parliamentary primaries.

He was optimistic that the MP would be retained in the upcoming parliamentary election on December 7 to do more for the area.

The colourful ceremony brought so many high profile personalities within and outside the Constituency and they were; Deputy Minister for Labour, Bright Wireko Brobey who is also an MP for Hemang Lower Denkyira, the secretary to Creative Arts Industry, Actress Jessica Williams, Abdul Ganiyu Mohammed, the Western Regional Organizer of NPP, Abena Kwallah, NPP Western Regional Women's Organiser, Actress Bibi Bright, Religious Leaders, the media among others.