Accra, Sept 18, GNA - Nana Akomea, Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment on Tuesday said the Ministry would by the end of the year develop the National Human Resource Policy to ensure a trained and disciplined labour force capable of sustaining the private sector. He said although the policy draft was initiated in 2005, lack of funds had constrained the development of the national document which would guide policy makers, human resource training institutions and other stakeholders in human resource planning and management.

Nana Akomea, who made the statement at the Meet- the -Press series organised by the Ministry of Information and National Orientation in Accra said the absence of comprehensive policies and empirical data on manpower development made it difficult to measure current trends in both employment and unemployment rates in the country.

The Minister said an effective regulation of manpower was crucial to monitor the activities of industrial management.

Not withstanding the constraints, he said, the Ministry through its training institutions, such as the National Vocational Training Institute and the Integrated Community Centres for Employable skills continued to provide competency based vocational and technical skills to empower especially the youth to gain self employment. Nana Akomea mentioned the National Youth Employment (NYEP) as another fruitful government intervention that has created over 107,000 youth employment.

He noted that the NYEP was able to employ 30,000 youth as teaching assistants to fill teaching vacancies in deprived districts and the health extension module had also trained a lot of the youth as nursing assistants, saying their presence would soon be felt in hospitals. According to him, the Ministry would soon introduce new modules for the information Technology, Mining, Construction and Maritime industries to provide more employment opportunities for the youth. The Minister explained that irregularities in the salaries of those employed under the NYEP were due to difficulties in gathering resources from funds such as the National Health Insurance Levy, HIPC and the GETFUND that supported the programme.

He said the development of the National Youth Policy was also on course to respond to the growing needs of the youth and to enable them to contribute their quota to national development.