A Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Elvis Afriyie-Ankrah has described the Unemployed Graduates Association (UGA) as evil and tagged its members lazy people paid to destroy themselves.

He said in abundance of job opportunities, the unemployed graduates loiter about and claim there are no jobs.

According to him, President Atta Mills under his “Better Ghana Agenda” has introduced the Local Enterprise and Skills Development (LESDEP) under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to provide opportunities for individuals to own their own businesses no matter the person’s political and ethnic background.

The deputy minister made these observations during the graduation ceremony of beneficiaries of LESDEP in the Eastern region at Koforidua on Friday.

He said there are opportunities in mobile phone assembly and repairs, fashion and designing, transport, agro-processing, construction, catering, hairdressing and beauty care, welding, photography and fish farming under the LESDEP programme and one has to go to the office of a metropolitan, municipal and district assembly to register.

He said apart from LESDEP, the government has undertaken other enterprise capacity building programmes like the Youth Enterprise Development Programme under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) while the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has also been strengthened to support small-scale private businesses

The Deputy Minister explained that LESDEP was to unearth the latent entrepreneurial acumen in the youth so that they will not only employ themselves but also expand employment opportunities in the country and contribute to the country’s economic growth.

“Today, across the world, owners of successful businesses are those who control everything in the economy. Their ideas help unleash the destinies of many employees, customers and even that of governments,” he noted.

He therefore asked the youth, especially those in tertiary schools not to join such ‘devilish’ association and also disabuse their minds that there are jobs for them when they complete school.

The National Co-ordinator of LESDEP, Adem Gariba said the programme has so far given employment to 24,490 people across the country and hope to cover 40,000 people by the end of the year.

He said the programme entails free training to help beneficiaries set up their own businesses by giving them necessary tools they need for them to pay back later under the programme’s own arrangements.

“LESDEP is a unique programme that is here to help the unemployed and I want all unemployed youth to take advantage of it to set up their own businesses so that they can be economically independent and also pay their dues to the growth of the nation,” he said.

Six hundred and fifteen people from the New Juaben Municipality, Akuapem North, Lower Many and Upper Manya districts in the Eastern region graduated at the ceremony and were given trucks, tricycles, outboard motors, industrial sewing machines, cooking utensils, mobile phone repair shops, hairdryers and cameras to help them start their own businesses.

The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Ebenezer Okletey Teilabi, asked the beneficiaries to take good care of the machines given to them so that they could reap the full benefit in their businesses.