Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has challenged the youth to discover their talents and appropriately use them for the benefit of the society.

He said the youth must also be recognised and supported to use the talents for the development of the nation.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur was speaking at the “Life in a Portrait Awards 2015” organised by the Initiators of Change Foundation at the State Banquet Hall in Accra.

The occasion was to honour former elected Presidents of Ghana since independence till date as well as some distinguished Ghanaians and Nelson Mandela with a portrait of each one of them.

The event was also to highlight and promote the talent of Theophilus Kwaku Sarpong Boateng, a 21 year old hyper realistic pencil artist who has made portraits of some famous personalities.

The former head of states are Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Edward Akufo Addo, Professor K.A. Busia, Dr Hilla Liman, Flt Lt Jerry John Rawlings, Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, Prof John Evans Atta-Mills and President John Dramani Mahama.

The rest are Mrs Joyce Banford Addo, first lady Speaker of Parliament, Mrs Georgina Wood, first lady Chief Justice, Justice Akua Kwenyehia of the International Criminal Court, Mr Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa.

Vice President Amissah-Arthur said the country is endowed with a lot of talents which must be harnessed for development.

He said his faith in the youth had also been deepened by what he had seen from the powerful portraits done by Mr Boateng.

Prof Melinda Greenstreet, a Patron of the Initiators of Change Foundation said Ghana as a nation is endowed with rich resources particularly human resources.

She said the country has the responsibility to discover and use those resources for the development of the nation.

Prof Greenstreet said among the objectives, the Initiators of Change Foundation is to discover, develop and promote the talents of young people for national development and social cohesion.

She said the nation’s resolve to the promotion of democratic governance with all its strengths and weaknesses continued to hold the nation together as a peaceful country.

Mr Boateng said back in school he was doing live art but the current technique of pencil drawings are hyper realism and entails so much detail with a lot of time that he at least spent two or three weeks on a single portrait.