General News of Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Source: starrfmonline.com

Mahama tells ECOWAS leaders to focus on job creation

President John Mahama has appealed to his colleague heads of state in the ECOWAS sub-region to prioritise job creation for the youth in their respective countries.

According to him, the growing unemployment among the youth is a potential threat to the peace and tranquility of the region.

“ I believe that one of the major challenges facing our sub-region and indeed the whole of the world is the issue of youth and jobs.

“And it is my hope that the ECOWAS commission will take up this issue for discussions because the challenge of job creation is a challenge that faces every single one of us and the rest of the world,” Mr Mahama stated at the 47th ECOWAS summit ongoing in Accra-Ghana.

He continued: “…Especially for Africa, considering the fact that we have the fastest growing youth population; young people are coming out of school at every level of the educational system in the hope of finding jobs, it’s going to be a major hurdle for us.

“I believe that special attention must be paid to this particular problem. The Youth bulge is both an advantage to our continent and also a danger if we are not able to handle it in terms of creating jobs for them”.