The Youth Enterprises and Skills Development Centre (YESDEC) has registered over 6,000 prospective beneficiaries in the Upper West Region since the inception of the programme in August, 2011.

Out of this, about 1,150 of them have already undergone training in four modules, including beauty care, fashion and designing as well as barbering and catering services.

The breakdown of the figure is; 475 for beauty care and fashion and designing, 180 for barbering services and 20 for catering services.

Mr. Kuri Suglo, YESDEC Regional Coordinator disclosed this during the maiden meeting of YESDEC and National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) District Coordinators at Wa on Friday.

He said out of those trained, 812 of them opened accounts with the Union Savings and Loans last month and are now ready to receive their equipment.

Mr. Suglo noted that with the opening of the accounts, beneficiaries were in position to set up their own businesses.

He said currently, administrative challenges such as delay in payment of salaries and office impress, including the lack of means of transport for district coordinators, among others, continued to persist and urged the Coordinators to keep the faith as Head Office resolves the challenges soon.

The YESDEC Regional Coordinator hinted that the necessary data for the District Coordinators to get their motor bikes had been processed and would soon be delivered to the region.

Mr. Nurideen Saani, the Upper West Regional National Youth Employment Programme Coordinator (NYEP) said YESDEC was a private sector initiative which was aimed at partnering with the public sector to provide solutions to the unemployment situation in the country.

He stressed that the success or otherwise of the programme was largely dependent on the District coordinators, who were expected to recruit the right people from their districts for them to be trained to become self-employed.

Mr. Bandy Amatus Bokunuba, the Upper West Regional Coordinator of the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) stressed on the need for stronger collaboration between all stakeholders of the programme in order to achieve results.

Mr. Mumuni Sulemana, the Upper West Regional Director of the National Youth Authority challenged the District Coordinators to come up with ideas that could be implemented, not only in their districts, but also at the regional and national levels.