President John Dramani Mahama on Saturday announced that the Local Skills Development programme (LESDEP) which started on pilot basis in some parts of the country would be extended to all the districts in the coming year.

Subsequently, District Coordinators of the programme would be recruited to select the youth for various training programmes under consideration.

President Mahama announced this when he addressed a rally at Ngleshie Amanfro, in the Ngleshie Amanfro Bortianor Constituency in the Greater Accra Region as part of his three-day campaign tour of the Region.

After touring the length and breadth of the country to seek their mandate in the past months, the Greater Accra Region is one of the last few areas that the President would be campaigning apart from some mop up exercises in some selected regions.

President Mahama said apart from expanding the LESDEP programme to all the districts of the country, the training modules would also be expanded to cover a number of skills that would be requested by the trainees.

He urged all the unemployed youth to take advantage of the programme to acquire training that would provide them with skills to make meaningful livelihood in the coming years.

The President said the programme would not discriminate against ethnic group, religious and political backgrounds, but would be on demand from the youth themselves.

On the general election, president Mahama advised all Ghanaians to stay away from tendencies and utterances that could undermine the peace and unity the country had enjoyed over the years.

He said: “Ghana has been touted as an oasis of peace and an icon in democratic dispensation, and we as Ghanaians should not do anything that will tarnish our hard won reputation over the years”.

President Mahama said the country had organized five successful and peaceful elections and this year’s elections would not depart from that trend.