The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere, has challenged metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) to look at the possibilities of developing businesses in their districts to create jobs for the youth.

He said such development could support the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme which aims at reducing poverty in the country.

He explained that the country could not totally rely on the LEAP programme to change the poverty situation of the people.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako was speaking at the formal opening of a day's sensitisation workshop for 50 selected MMDCEs from the Western, Central, Eastern, Volta and the Greater Accra regions on the LEAP programme which was organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection at Koforidua.

He urged the MMDCEs to ensure that enumerators selected in their districts enrolled only the vulnerable unto the programme.

Mr Antwi-Boasiako cautioned that the essence of the LEAP programme would be defeated if people who did not fall within the extreme poverty bracket were made to benefit from the programme.

Nana Oye Lithur, the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, said the LEAP programme which started in 2008 covering 1, 645 households in 21 districts, was projected to cover 200,000 households by the end of December this year.

She said the sixth and the most recent Ghana Living Standard Survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service indicated that the current extreme poverty level of the country had reduced from 16.5 per cent in 2005/2006 to 8.4 per cent in 2012/2013.