Wa, Oct 3, GNA - Mr Sahanun Mogtari, Upper West Regional Minister, on Thursday directed all top public servants in the region to dress up in tie and dye materials to work on Fridays as a way of boosting patronage of made-in-Ghana goods. He gave the directive at Wa at a passing out ceremony of 11 trainees who successfully completed a three-month skills acquisition courses at various Integrated Community Centres for Employable Skills (ICCES) in the region.

The ICCES graduates who formed the first batch of unemployed who registered for skills acquisition, were trained in batik, tie and dye, soap and pomade making under the government's Skills Training and Employment Placement Programme (STEP). Mr Mogtari reiterated that employment opportunities and wealth could only be created if goods produced by Ghanaians for the local market, were patronised by Ghanaians. She said the STEP programme required local market outlets on sustainable basis to enable its objectives to be realised. Widespread patronage of locally manufactured goods, he said, was the only way the private sector could be encouraged to serve as the engine of growth of the economy.

Mr Sylvanus Ganfaa, Lawra District Chief Executive, called for massive injection of funds into the training of the unemployed who were registered by the government and urged district assemblies to support such skills development programmes to help reduce the high rate of unemployment among the youth. Mr Ganfaa announced that the Assembly spent 15 million cedis in supporting training programmes for 100 people in Lawra and Nandom last year.