With the December 7th election inching closer each day, the youth wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), under the leadership of the workaholic George Opare Addo (Pablo), organized two public events on Tuesday and offered the NDC 2024 flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, the platform to set out a series of measures aimed at boosting opportunities for young people.

First, in our body politics, both the UPSA-Kofi Ohene-Konadu Auditorium policy launch and the Bukom Boxing Arena interactive youth forum are a blueprint of what Ghana can be and a pledge for the difference NDC can and will make.

All in all, the creation of the Youth Employment Bureau, the Youth-in-Mining Policy, the No Academic Fees Policy, the establishment of Farmers Service Centers, and making Free SHS accessible to all private senior secondary schools are among Mahama’s pledges in his Youth Manifesto for the 2024 general election.

The NDC Youth Manifesto pledges to tackle unemployment with an ambitious strategy and $3 billion investment into ICT for the creation of a minimum of 300,000 jobs under the Digital Jobs Initiative. The Youth Manifesto also pledges to roll out the ONE MILLION CODERS PROGRAM. This is to train one million young people in coding and in-demand supply digital skills for the growing business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) ecosystems, and to ensure no one is left behind in the digital revolution.

The NDC under Mahama, wants to reform the education system. Apart from his promise of modernizing the current Free SHS program, Mahama is promising to cut down the GHS2 billion expenditure of the Office of Government Machinery and redirect the funds into financing his "No Academic Fees Policy." He plans to absorb the academic user fees of all new entrants into public tertiary institutions (universities, colleges of education, nursing teacher training colleges, etc.) starting in the 2025–2026 academic year.

The NDC's Youth Manifesto also commits to an expert-led critical appraisal of the free SHS program with the view of improving its implementation. The NDC aims to provide a dedicated and sustainable source of funding for the free SHS program.

Under an NDC government, the current SHS double-track system will be a thing of the past. The idea is to ensure that all SHS students go to school and go on vacation at the same time.

Student Loan Trust Fund Plus (SLTF Plus) would be brought back under the Mahama presidency to help continuing tertiary students enjoy hassle-free higher education.

Again, to support PERSONS WITH disabilities, the NDC proposes free tertiary education for all persons with disabilities who get admission into public tertiary institutions.

And as part of a mission to address the infamous “in-out-out” policy of the Universities: the NDC wants to partner with the private sector to develop accommodation facilities on the campuses of all public tertiary institutions.

In addition, a John Mahama-led NDC government aspires to cancel the license EXAMS for TRAINED TEACHERS and incorporate their licensing examination into their final year examination at the colleges of education, while scraping the quota system for admissions into nursing and teacher training colleges to expand students’ enrollment.

There’s also a proposal to deliver the National Apprenticeship Program. This policy is aimed at enrolling young people with senior craftsmen to be trained in various crafts and vocations FOR FREE Trained apprentices will be issued a certificate at the end of their training and supported with start-up equipment and funds to set up their own businesses.

Further pledges include the setting up of the “Adwumawura Programme,” a special start-up policy aimed at facilitating the creation, tracking, and mentoring of a minimum of 10,000 businesses by young people every year, and the promotion of "Prior Learning Certification" (PLC) and "Set-Up Certification" (SEC) to facilitate and support artisans in the informal sector to validate and improve their skills and knowledge for academic and career progression.

Finally, the NDC Youth Manifesto makes commitments to introduce an insurance scheme known as "MO-NE-YO" to provide special pension schemes for informal sector workers such as commercial drivers, farmers, fishermen, traders, market women, and artisans, among others, to improve their livelihood in retirement.

All of the above are decent and exciting pledges but what this Youth Manifesto ultimately illustrates a clear break from politics as usual and embraces the idea that voters demand something different in order to be able to distinguish the NDC from the NPP.

Clearly, the NDC is proposing to the Ghanaian youth a broader perspective on a broad range of issues to build a better, fairer Ghana, where no one is held back. And where everybody is able to get on in life, to be decently paid for the work they do, and to live their lives with the dignity they deserve.

Enormous credit goes to the youth wing and its commander, George Opare Addo for organising such an excellent event and being the star of the 2024 campaign.