The CEO of the National Petroleum Authority Mr Hassan Tampuli has hailed the impact of the Young African Leaders Initiative Program, on young people in Ghana and other parts of Africa.

The NPA boss was receiving a delegation from the YALI Alumni, Ghana Chapter, who had paid a courtesy call on him, on Tuesday, December 4, 2019, when he acknowledged the positive effect of the leadership training program.

Mr Tampuli stated how impressed he is, that despite the numerous distractions that young people face nowadays YALI Fellows had chosen the path to make relevant socioeconomic impact. He further explained how he had seen and experienced "the phases of what young people do", and how the recent trend was encouraging.

On his part, Mr Bismark Gyamfi, the president of the YALI Alumni Ghana Chapter expressed the group's gratitude for the NPA boss' warm reception and pledge, to support Ghanaian youth, including YALI Fellows. Mr Tampuli had expressed commitment, and readiness to support " anything that will channel the energies of Ghanaian youth into productive ventures". He accepted the request to become a YALI ambassador, and offer the necessary inspiration, mentorship and possible opportunities when available.

Mr Gyamfi mentioned some of the group's initiatives and seized the opportunity to specially invite the NPA boss to the YALI Alumni Family Fun Games and Dinner, which will be held on January 4 and 5, 2019. He highlighted the YALI Alumni's need for partnership with institutions like the NPA as strategic since the focus of the YALI program is moving towards young people who had completed the training, in order to measure the real impact of the program.

Mr Tampuli assured the group of working closely with them and granted slots for the mandatory internship that trainees had to go through before completing the YALI Training Program.

His parting words were that "leadership of the nation was not by the brawn", but rather " by the brain", and celebrated the fact that this was former US President Barack Obama's bequeathed legacy to Africa.

The Young African Leaders Initiative is a flagship program of the American government with support from USAID, MasterCard, Africa 2.0, and GIMPA which is the implementing institution. GIMPA is the headquarters for the YALI West Africa Regional Leadership Center (RLC), with a satellite centre in ASCON, Nigeria. The RLC has trained over 4000 young leaders across nine countries in the subregion, about 1500 of whom are Ghanaians.

There is also an RLC in Dakar, Senegal for Francophone participants in West Africa.

YALI boasts a network of over 15,000 young leaders globally.

The YALI Alumni, Ghana Chapter is embarking on activities to mobilize members nationwide and energize them and keep tabs on each of them to ensure they get the necessary support for their wonderful works across Ghana and beyond. The YALI Alumni Fun Games and Dinner shall be held on January 4 and 5, 2019 respectively, to rally the alumni.