“Our energies are under-utilized” – Activista

By Godfred A. Polkuu, GNA

Bolgatanga, May 2, GNA – Activista Ghana, a youth group in the Upper East Region, has called on government to initiate policies that would help the country’s youth to contribute their quota to nation building in their early ages.

Mr Nicholas Nambirigya Azebire, the Upper East Regional Communications Officer of Activista Ghana, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the side line of the May Day celebration in Bolgatanga, said “we think that the energies and skills of young people in Ghana are wasting away.”

Activista Ghana, which is made up of young people, who were given capacity building by ActionAid Ghana, are to ensure that youth of the country participated actively in the governance process.

According to him, their energies were partly wasting away because “young people graduate from the various schools; the Teacher Training Colleges, the Nursing Training Colleges, the various universities and they are sitting at home.”

“They have learnt a skill and this skill is wasting away at home, they are not contributing their quota to the development of the country. One would expect that as soon as you graduate from these institutions, you are engaged to immediately start contributing to the development of the country.”

Mr Azebire who observed that graduates, have had to sit at home for close to three years before government engaged them, said even though some explanations were given by government that until certain things such as teachers licensing examination among others were done, the graduates could not be employed.

“As much as we would want some of these things to be done, we expect that they should be done in a very fast manner such that it would not take that long for young people who graduate with skill to continue to sit at home.”

Mr Azebire said labour unions expressed concerns about low pensions and questioned, “how can one have high pension when you have to sit at home for years after graduating. We think that government should expedite action and ensure that as soon as young people graduate from schools, they are engaged.”

The Communications Officer conceded that even though it was not government’s sole responsible to engage graduates, especially those from the various universities, it is thought that the environment should be conducive for young people who want to engage in their own businesses to do so.

“If you look at the business environment, it is very difficult for a graduate of a university to immediately start thinking about starting up his own enterprise. Getting funds is difficult, such a person will not have access to loans, the banks are asking for guarantees, and they do not have it.”

“How can such a person be motivated to start a business,” he quizzed.

Asked if the Nations Builders Corps (NABCO), which was intended to engage graduates was not addressing their concerns, Mr Azebire said they were grateful to government for the introduction of the policy, and noted that “as much as we agree that it will give graduates some form of income, this will last for only three years.”

He agreed that the NABCO officials would have some experience after the three years, and further questioned if there would be ready jobs for them after the three years.

GNA

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