Mr. Fritz Baffour, Minister of Information, has said the Local Enterprise and Skill Development Programme (LESDEP) is an important initiative and called on the youth to take advantage of the opportunities it offers to acquire employable skills.

He said LESDEP was an initiative of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government for the youth and all Ghanaians to acquire viable skills that would make them self-employed to help reduce poverty.

Mr. Baffour who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ablekuma South said this on Wednesday at Chorkor in Accra, when under the initiative, he presented 20 Yamaha outboard motors at the cost of GH¢140,000 to the fishermen of the area.

He also presented some building materials such as 300 woods, 100 bags of cement, 10 bundles of iron roofing sheets and eight boxes of nails estimated at about GH¢40,000 for the construction of resting places along the beaches of Chorkor for the fishermen.

The Minister said government’s intervention would be misplaced if issues like partisanship were associated with the LESDEP initiative and appealed to the people to discard the notion that the initiative belongs to the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the NDC or the Convention People’s Party (CPP).

He urged the youth to complement the government’s effort by engaging themselves in LESDEP and other programmes like the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) to acquire employable skills and improve their living standard.

Mr. Baffour said government would work to ensure that the schemes were sustained to meet the developmental aspirations of the people.

Mrs Mercy Budu, Greater Accra Regional Coordinator of LESDEP, appealed to all unemployed people to register with LESDEP in order to gain some skills saying training was being made available at no costs in hairdressing, dressmaking, barbering, tailoring, catering, mobile phone repairs amongst others.

Nii Chorkor Abiala, Chief Fisherman of Chorkor Mantsuru, expressed gratitude to the MP for coming to their aid with the items.