Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Tuesday launched a Post-COVID Skills Development and Productivity Enhancement Programme (PSDPEP).

The PSDPEP is a five-year project, which seeks to build health-related skills in higher education, restore livelihoods, strengthen public communication, and create jobs among the youth and women.

It is also aimed at promoting technical and entrepreneurship for job creation.

The project is being funded from a grant facility of US $31.34 million, comprising $28.5million from the African Development Bank (AfDB), and 2.8 million from Government of Ghana.

The Minister said the project was in line with critical government development policy frameworks, such as the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda, Government Coordinated Program of Economic and Social Development as well as the Country Strategy Paper (2019-2013).

This reflects the development aspirations of the Government of Ghana as required by the 1992 constitution.

The PSDPEP beneficiaries are: the Ghana News Agency, Social Investment Fund, Microfinance and Small Loans Centre, the Biotechnology Centre, the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and the Microbiology Centre.

 The rest are the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Vocational Training Institute.

The project will be implemented in seven regions in Ghana – Greater Accra, Ashanti, Eastern, Bono, Northern, Central, and Upper West.

Mr Baffour-Awuah stressed the need for beneficiaries to own the project by mainstreaming it into their programmes.

That, he said, was necessary for its successful implementation.

Mr Kofi Frimpong, the Executive Director of the Social Investment Fund and Project Coordinator, indicated that the pandemic disrupted livelihoods at the individual, household and entrepreneurial levels due to lockdowns.

The project, he said, would, therefore, help to alleviate the plight of those affected.

Mr. Emmanuel Fordjour, Desk Head of AFDB at the Ministry of Finance, said the Bank was committed to assisting Ghana to recover from the hardships the people suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Steering and technical committees were inaugurated before the programme launched to supervise its successful implementation.