The Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr Isaac Asiamah has urged the youth to engage in voluntary and community service to develop their leadership skills and entrepreneurship qualities.

This according to him will help inculcate in them a culture of belongingness and acceptance which are necessary and essential for national development and stability.

The sector minister said this at a two day orientation capacity building workshop for Regional and District Directors of the National Youth Authority (NYA) at Koforidua.

The workshop was under the theme, “Strengthening the functional capacity of the National Youth Authority for sustainable youth development service’’.

The workshop seeks to develop the capacity of the participants and come out with innovative solutions to address local youth development challenges.
It also aims at evolving techniques to achieve result-oriented outcomes.

Mr Asiamah said youth development was on the priority list of government and that has informed the many youth economic empowerment interventions that are being outlined and inaugurated since the beginning of the year.

Some of the programmes he mentioned were the ‘’One District One factory ‘’, “Planting for Food and jobs’’ and the establishments of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan(NEIP) among others .

He advised the Regional and District Directors to facilitate the youth’s access to such laudable interventions, because the ultimate mobilization lies within their ambit.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Youth Authority, Mr Emmanuel Asigri said the work of the NYA should be grounded on a systematic vision based on a deep knowledge of existing situations for both local and in the international arena.

He cautioned all the participants to stop the old attitudes that had not helped the Authority in the past.

The participants were drawn from 52 districts and municipalities across the country.