Accra, May 19, GNA - The Brong Ahafo Regional Council of the Assemblies of God, in collaboration with two NGOs is developing a strategic plan to create jobs and employment for the youth of the church as well as non-members.

As a first step, the church with the support of the Anointed Consultancy Services Ltd, a local NGO, and the Network of Associations of Registered NGOs in Ghana, is to go into food and cash crop production for both local consumption and export.

Crops to be cultivated include moringa, maize, cashew and other fruits and vegetables most of which would be processed to add value for export, using the services of the youth and the unemployed who would be on hand to fulfil the dreams of the church. A statement issued in Accra and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Wednesday said the church was also seeking to promote agribusiness where the youth would be engaged in cottage industries using raw materials from the farms.

"Additionally, the church plans to go into estate development by constructing hostel facilities to house students of tertiary institutions in the Region who most of the time faced accommodation problems." The statement said these were the outcome of a day's sensitization seminar organized by the three institutions in Sunyani for the District Executives of the Assemblies of God in the Brong Ahafo Region. The theme for the seminar was: "Creating Jobs, Employment and Wealth through Strategic Planning: The Challenges for the Church and the Way Forward".

The statement quoted Mr Kofi Lucas, National President of the Network of Associations of Registered NGOs who was the main speaker as having asked other churches in the Region to join hands under a common agenda and initiate social and economic interventions that would generate jobs and employment for the youth.

Mr Lucas said it had become important for the church in Ghana today to reach out and mobilize the masses for the development of the nation. He said creating jobs and employment in all the districts of Brong Ahafo Region, for example, would complement government's efforts to fight poverty and unemployment in Ghana.

Mr Lucas who is also the Chairman of the Anointed Consultancy Services Ltd, noted that the church with its rich and huge human resource and strong financial base must help to alleviate poverty among the people. The Rev. John Kwadwo Mensah, Secretary to the Council who represented the Regional Superintendent, Rev. E. K. Mensah, at the ceremony said to make the programme successful, the church will partner with investors in the church outside the country especially from Europe, Asia and the Americas. The projects, he said, would cover all the districts in the Region and appealed to the participants who were drawn from the whole region to help start work on the development plan to move the regional agenda forward.