The Artisans Association of Ghana (AAG) has called on the President Nana Akufo-Addo to place them on the national budget purposely for training of Artisans.

In a statement issued on Monday, February 13 by its president Gideon Bidor, it said: “As an organization/Institution we are looking forward to the government to (apportion) a special budget for Artisans in the country as has been done for teachers and nursing trainees in Ghana.

“Artisans in this country play very key roles in the development of our nation and form part of the pillars of the country when it comes to matters of nation building, hence if the pillars becomes weak and porous, the country is likely to collapse which is what we are experiencing currently. A number of literature has indicated that Ghana needs more refined Artisans hence the need to train persons to be skillful in their activities”.

It added: “(AAG) has over 33,000 members nationwide with 23 categories of programs namely, masonry, carpentry, steel bending, fashion designing, plumbing , painting, etc and we are expecting the government to allocate a budget for artisan training in other to reduce unemployment canker in the country.

“There has been a number of attempts by past governments to help the youth but no direct benefit has been attained by organised Artisans as in the case of teachers and nurses that are being trained”.

The Association indicated that, government’s intervention will enable Artisans in the country to prevent them from relying on expatriates.