The acting Co-ordinator of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Ras Mubarak, has cautioned that the devil will find work for jobless youth if the country does not do so.
He said young people in the country face challenges that have made them vulnerable to manipulation, with the potential of increasing crime.
Speaking at a conference to validate the implementation plan of the National Youth Policy (NYA) in Accra last Thursday, Mr Mubarak called on stakeholders to consider unemployment as a national security issue and not as a headache for central government alone.
He said the situation calls for the development of an implementation plan for the NYP, and called on all ministries to make commitments to the youth component in their budget to facilitate the provision of jobs for young graduates.
Mr Mubarak also stressed the need for the government to encourage young graduates to consider entrepreneurship instead of seeking jobs.
For instance, he suggested that the Ministry of Agriculture could make agriculture very attractive in various ways to encourage more young graduates to venture into it.
He announced that the NYA has engaged a team of experts to lead the drafting of an implementation plan for the programme to serve as the basis for nationwide consultations with young group and other stakeholders to enhance youth development.
The conference was to introduce NYP implementation plan document to stakeholders, including Ministries, Departments and Agencies, development partners, non-governmental organisations and corporate institutions.
Over the years there have been many interventions and programmes aimed at promoting youth development in the past.
However, one major setback to the initiative had been the lack of a policy framework for stakeholders to collaborate to achieve their objectives.
In response to this challenge, the government in August 2010 launched a National Youth Policy.
The rational of the policy, among other things, is to enable the government to engage the youth and other stakeholders to develop appropriate interventions and services for youth empowerment.
It is also intended to help the country demonstrate its commitment to all international conventions and charters affecting the youth that it had signed.