The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is to provide funding for the training of 250 young Ghanaians in various trades and vocations over a three-year period.

This would be done under the Youth Apprenticeship Programme - a joint project of the Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT), a financial institution, and Opportunity International Deutschland (OID), a non-profit foundation supporting micro-finance projects.

A press statement signed by Ms. Eva-Julia Dichter of the Public Relations Unit of OID and mailed to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi, said the beneficiaries, 60 per cent of them females, would the selected from the Obuasi Municipality.

They would receive training in catering, hairdressing, tailoring, mechanics, masonry and carpentry to help empower them economically.

It said the intervention was part of the effort to fight poverty - to give the youth meaningful lives.

This way they could contribute effectively to the nation’s socio-economic development.

The statement said apart from the training, the beneficiaries would be given interest free start-up loans by SAT to operate their businesses.

OID, founded in 1996 and based in Cologne, Germany, had been operating in Ghana, Uganda, Indonesia and the Philippines where it had been giving financial assistance to micro-finance projects.