Wa, Aug. 3, GNA – The first batch of 593 beneficiaries under the Dress Making Module of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) have been presented with sewing machines and their accessories to empower them to establish their businesses.

The machines, the cost of which was not made known, were provided by the NYEP in collaboration with the Asongtaba Youth under the Trades and Vocations Module of the Programme at a passing out ceremony in Wa on Wednesday.

Mr Saani Nurudeen, Upper West Regional Coordinator of the NYEP, who presented the items to Alhaji Issahaque Salia, Upper West Regional Minister, said of the 593 machines, Wa Municipal would receive 116.

The Wa East and Wa West Districts would be provided with 57 and 60 each of the machines while Nadowli as well as Jirapa districts would also receive 63 and 60 machines respectively.

The Lawra District would take 59 of the machines, Lambussie/Karni District, 58, Sissala East District, 58, and Sissala West 62.

Mr Nurudeen said training for the second batch of 2,250 youth under the programme had started and appealed to them to be more serious with their training.

They should also inform others in their communities who had not yet joined the module to do so to enable the government to accomplish its campaign promise.

Mr Nurudeen said the programme had registered tremendous growth in all the modules of the Programme in the region under the “Better Ghana” agenda initiated by the government.

Employment figures under the programme had increased with the Waste and Sanitation Module registering 1,530 youth as against 453 youth with Paid Internship recording 500 youth as against 68 in 2008.

Mr Nurudeen said the Health Extension Workers Module, which hitherto registered only 474 youth, had now increased to 1,126.

The Community Protection Assistants and Community Education Teaching Assistants Modules also increased from 33 to 112 and 1,473 to 1,900 youth respectively.

He said other modules which had been introduced for the first time included the Prison Protection Assistants, recruiting 51, Dressmaking enrolling 593, Youth in Film Industry enrolling 22, and Hairdressing employing 1,000 youth.

The Youth in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) module had registered 30 and more of the youth were still expected to enroll on the module in the region.

Mr Nurudeen said the Youth in Road Maintenance Module would be introduced soon in the region.

He advised the beneficiaries to work harder than before to help improve their livelihoods and contribute meaningfully to the development of the country.