… to curb unemployment menace

Asontaba Cottage Industry, a partner of the national youth and employment program and facilitators
of the various trades and vocation modules of the program have affirmed their commitment to aiding
government curb the growing list of unemployment despite the various efforts being made by government
to avert the trend.

Reacting to an assertion by an official of the Program that the various private owned entities currently partnering
the NYEP take undue advantage of the program by inflating cost an d figures, Mr Henry Kegah the Exercutive
Director of ACI made it clear that it was not so.

According to him, with the way the National Youth Employment is structured, there is no way a service provides
can inflate the number of trained personals or even cost.
“We only deal with figures given to us by the program and under no circumstance can inflate figures” he said”

“Apart from the fact that they are not in-charge of the recruitment of beneficiaries, details of training are given at
district, regional and national level so there is no way figure can be inflated.” He added.

He therefore called on the program’s implementers to collaborate well with the District where recruitment is done
to ascertain the authenticity of figures provided by them.

He revealed that, even on most occasions, numbers of beneficiaries exceed the agreed figure but due to the fact
that they are committed to job creation and have corporate social responsibilities towards the people, they usually
take it upon themselves to bear the extra cost of the excess beneficiaries.

He further revealed plans to expand the current vocational training programs being undertaken to ensure that the
unemployed are presented with wide range of option to choose from.

According to him, the 21st Century thrives on empowering the youth through education and imbibing in them the spirit of entrepreneurship. He said "when one person is trained and given the necessary working tools to operate, he or she ends up employing other people within a very short period of time and that is the most effective way of reducing unemployment to the lowest minimum
Apart from the dress making and Hair dressing training, the company is also seeking to train people on the assembly of tricycle to serve communities that have poor access roads.
According to him, the Tricycle Training program would target rural folks and would serve as an alternative means of transportation for the many rural areas that do not have access to good roads.
He also called on corporate Ghana to channel part of their corporate social responsibility towards the creation of jobs as unemployment is a social problem.
“Asontaba is open to collaborating with other Corporate entities to provide vocational training for those who might not be able to benefit from the NYEP to drastically reduce unemployment.l
He also used the platform to commend Ghanaians for coming together to give President Mills a befitting burial.
He called on politicians to learn from the life of the late president whose humility, humanity and advocate for peace and unity endeared him into the hearts of Ghanians across the political divide.
Isaac Kyei andoh
thecitizenghana.com
0244260638