Under the programme, Acreaty will liaise with selected tertiary institutions to provide practical business and entrepreneurial skills to the young graduates in addition to the knowledge they have acquired from the academia.

The Regional Managing Director (Africa) of the Acreaty Management PLC, Ms Elsie Appau, told the Daily Graphic after the launch of the youth development programme that the initiative was born-out of the galamsey menace which was a product of unemployable skills on the part of the youth, coupled with the unavailability of jobs.

“We want to avoid a situation where we have many pragmatic literates in the country. You have people studying agriculture and yet they cannot contribute meaningfully to the agricultural development of our nation. You have people studying economics but cannot contribute effectively to the economic discourse in the nation,” Ms Apau explained.

She said the initiative was also to reduce illiteracy among the youth in Ghana. “The issue is if we can read and write, why should we focus our time on mining our natural resources when we can put our efforts to very good and income earning activities for our nation,” Ms Appau added.

Acreaty

The company, Ms Appau stated, would focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to reduce their over-dependence on the state, while engendering sustainable business development in the country.

“It is only countries that have strong economic value and dependency on the private sector that will thrive. Our proposition is to see Ghana export human capital to other parts of the world,” she stated.

Empower the youth

For his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Acreaty Management PLC, Mr Paramjit Anand, underscored the importance of youth empowerment to the development of a nation and the globe at large.

He said the African youth had wisdom like their counterparts in other continents to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic development of their countries.

Mr Anand added, however, that the great potential of the African youth should be honed and harnessed.