The National Service Scheme has announced that National Service Persons posted to the Scheme’s farms after the completion of their service, would be given the opportunity to own part of the farms.

Alhaji Alhassan Imoro, NSS Executive Director said the aim of the new policy is to empower the youth to go into entrepreneurship, declaring that this is why we have strongly taken up and introduced our national service persons into agriculture, in line with the government’s Youth in Agriculture Programme.

He said one cardinal objective of the Scheme is to encourage the youth to collectively undertake projects designed to combat hunger, illiteracy, disease and unemployment in Ghana; and also to help provide essential services and amenities, particularly in towns and villages.

Alhaji Imoro, made these disclosures in Wenchi during a week-long international entrepreneurship training programme of the Global Entrepreneurship Training (GET) – 2014 for some selected youths.

The programme which is being hosted by the Methodist University - Ghana, brought together over 130 youths from seven West African countries, with the theme: “Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Economic Development”.

The Executive Director assured that the Scheme would continue to engage the youth and encourage them to take up agriculture as a viable and live economic venture.

He said while the Scheme grooms the youth for better transitions into productive livelihoods, we need to direct resources at the development of the youth themselves, and connect them with economic opportunities emerging within national development priorities.

He stated that all over the world entrepreneurship is taking the centre stage of national economic development, therefore, introducing young graduates to entrepreneurship mindset gives them creative minds to maximize their talents for national development.

Alhaji Imoro urged young graduates, especially those on national service who would soon be exiting the Scheme and who were taking part in the training programme, to take the programme seriously since it would equip them with skills that would propel them onto employment and or self – employment in the job market.

He observed that “entrepreneurs are not made, but they become”; adding that it takes your interest, creativity and support in terms of financial inclusion and economic opportunities, to become an entrepreneur and the Scheme is prepared to effectively play the facilitative roles.

He said the GET 2014 programme, the third to be organized in West Africa, fits directly into the Scheme’s objective of developing programmes, aimed at training Ghanaian youth to develop their skills to make them employable in order to be able to fill the manpower shortfalls of the economy.

Alhaji Imoro said policy makers today are talking about the need for a paradigm shift for the Ghanaian youth to redirect their focus from seeking non-existent white-colour jobs, to developing their capability, which is a key factor in increasing their employability or their prospects of successful self-employment.