B/R youth parliament inaugurated

The Bono Region Youth Parliament has been inaugurated with a call on the youth to contribute meaningfully to national cohesion, harmony, legislation and decision-making processes.

They have also been asked to express their views, give constructive criticism, participate effectively and efficiently on developmental challenges and problems in local governance.

The Youth Parliament is an initiative enshrined in the 2010 National Youth Policy of the National Youth Association (NYA) aimed at providing the youth with an official platform where young people learn how to express their views, give constructive criticisms, and above all participate effectively and efficiently in decision-making processes on various developmental issues at the local level.

Hajia Fati Bamba, the Bono Regional Director of the NYA, said the Youth Parliament offered an opportunity to the youth in the region and the entire nation to express their views and contribute to national legislation and decision-making processes.

She advised the participants to eschew partisan politics, and instead, focus on issues that would push the development of the region forward.

“We must eschew partisan politics and focus on issues that will ensure progress, growth and development of our communities to improve livelihoods and the nation at large,” Hajia Bamba stressed.

In her inaugural address, Justina Owusu-Banahene, the Bono Regional Minister, indicated that youth unemployment and under-employment remained daunting national developmental challenges and problems but the government had prioritised them to provide the youth with numerous opportunities for employment and wealth creation.

She noted that social interventions of the government were to provide jobs for the youth and help them to acquire the necessary working experience to broaden employment opportunities for them to make agriculture more attractive to young people.

Mrs Owusu-Banahene identified agribusiness, entrepreneurship, apprenticeship, construction and tourism as key sectors that could offer increased employment opportunities for the youth and underscored the need for more investments in career guidance and counselling, work-based learning, coaching, and mentoring to equip young people with relevant skills and knowledge required for work.

“The mismatch of skills is contributing to rising youth unemployment and institutions of higher learning should collaborate with business community and develop curricula that will churn out required products for the labour market and many young people have been found to be gaining tertiary qualification but they are not gaining qualification relevant to changing labour market,” Mrs Owusu-Banahene asserted.  -GNA