Mr Joseph Addae Akwaboah, the Bono Regional Minister at the weekend assured that implementation of the government's National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP) will benefit all the interested young people, nationwide. The NAP is a major government initiative to address youth unemployment, close the skills gap, and promote economic growth in the country.

‎Mr Akwaboah emphasized that the government remained committed to tackle the growing youth employment rate in the country, saying statistics showed that nearly 1.2 million young Ghanaians between the ages 15 and 35 years remained unemployed and under-employed.

‎With thousands of young people entering the labour market annually, he said the youth unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24 years currently stood approximately 5.4 percent.

‎However, when including under-employment and those in insecure informal work. recent estimates place youth unemployment and under-employment as high as 38. percent, with nearly 70 percent youth engaged in the informal sector.

‎Mr Akwaboa gave the assurance when speaking at the ceremony for the induction of about 700 apprentices under the NAP implementation in Sunyani.

‎Mr Akwaboah said the apprentices would undergo competency-based in industry relevance skills that would empower them for gainful employment and entrepreneurship.

‎He reaffirmed government commitment to enroll 10,000 beneficiaries nationwide covering broad trade areas that responded directly to the labour market demand the economy, including agriculture and agro-processing, traditional craft, arts a creative trades, cosmetology, hospitality as well as ICT and emerging digital needs.

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