Government is spending 84 million Ghana Cedis under the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) to alleviate poverty especially, among the youth, Dr Kwabena Duffour, Minister of Finance, has disclosed.

This was because the youth constituted a strategic human resource of the nation whose contributions to socio-economic development could not be underestimated.

Dr Duffour, who was speaking at the passing out ceremony for some 94 trainees of the LESDEP at Kumawu, in the Sekyere Afram Plains of Ashanti Region, said the empowerment of the youth would continually feature prominently in the development agenda of the Mills’ Administration.

The trainees who underwent two weeks training in hairdressing, mobile phone repairing, barbering, catering, as well as fashion and dressmaking were drawn from the Sekyere Afram Plains and Sekyere-East Districts.

They received start-up kits including gas cylinders, beauty care machines, motor bikes, barbering kits, mobile phone repairing kits, sewing machines and six trucks to enhance their livelihood.

The ceremony marked the first in the series of training programmes lined up by LESDEP for beneficiaries in the Ashanti Region.

Dr Duffour said the LESDEP, registered under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, is being implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare and other agencies.

It has so far opened offices in all the 170 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies across the nation.**