Daaho (Ash), Jan 8, GNA - More than 500 unemployed youth in the Sekyere West District would be supported this year to undertake mechanized farming under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).

So far, 820 youth have been registered in the district for the programme, out of which 95 have already been employed as Community Teaching Assistants.

Twenty-five have been trained and recruited under the sanitation and waste management component of the programme and are working with a private waste management company.

Mr. Emmanuel Aidoo, the Deputy District Co-coordinating Director (DDCD), said this when he addressed a passing out ceremony for 15 female employable skills trainees at Daaho.

The trainees were taken through a two-week skills training in soap, pomade and powder making using local raw materials.

The programme was funded by the Community-based Rural Development Project (CBRDP), successor to the Village Infrastructure Project (VIP) and the district assembly at a cost of 36 million cedis. Mr Aidoo said the NYEP and the CBRDP were two of many government interventions that have been designed aimed at finding a more workable long-term solution to the ever-increasing youth unemployment. He urged communities, irrespective of their political affiliations, to join hands with government agencies that have been tasked to ensure the success of these programme to make sure the right thing is done. Mr Isaac Osei-Asare, District Manager of the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), said each trainee would be given a grant of 4.5 million cedis as start-up capital.

Besides, he said, BAC with funding from the CBRDP would continue to provide the trainees with business management and advisory services to ensure that their enterprises survive.