Suhum (E/R), June 15, GNA - A Deputy Director at the Greater Accra Regional Co-ordinating Council, Mr Ernest Nyagbe, says there is need for a thorough and holistic refocusing of micro credit financing schemes toward job creation and as a long-term poverty eradication measure. He said this was necessary because micro financing, as compared to medium-scale financing, had not help to expand the horizon of the economy in the long term.

Mr Nyagbe suggested to the Government to extend more support to medium-sized projects, which have consistently shown tremendous promise in helping eliminate poverty as well as enhance job generation. He made these remarks on Thursday at a dialogue for public officials and Assembly members drawn from the Eastern and Greater Accra Regions at Suhum on how they could help track youth employment in their respective regions.

The event was organized by the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), a Non-Governmental Organization.

Mr Nyagbe noted that most micro interventions introduced by governments over the years often folded up in about two years owing to a number of reasons including poor marketing, socio-cultural difficulties and political considerations.

He stated that in a few instances where successes were chalked, they were "only ephemeral", as the projects quickly stagnated due to the beneficiaries' perception of the their allotment as a dash or reward from the government for some service rendered in the past and therefore did not feel obliged to pay back. Mr Nyagbe cited several examples to buttress his view and made a particular reference to a group in the Greater Accra region that received 80 million cedis from Government to start a micro project, however, nearly a year on, not a single structure had been erected at the site.

Dr Lehlohondo Tlou, Head of Training and Research at IDEG, said there was need to look for both state and non-state resources to tackle the pervasive issue of youth unemployment. She called for a campaign that would ensure that resources allocated for employment generation in the country were well spent since, according to her, the future development of the country would depend on the productive sector of the economy.