By Robert Anane, GNA
Accra, August 11, GNA – Young people
in Ghana and Africa as a whole, would be able to maximise their potential and
resources, when given the right platform, Mr Lambert Donkor, President of
Impact Ghana Agenda has said.
“Youth represent massive untapped
potential for the development of the various sectors of a nation’s economy if
appropriately equipped.”
Mr Donkor said this at commemoration
of International Youth Day, at Webster University in Accra on the theme, “Safe
Spaces for Youth.”
Mr Donkor noted, that Africa had the
fastest growing and most youthful population in the world, with about 40
percent under the age of 15 while over 20 percent were between the ages of 15
and thirty.
“I therefore humbly call on President
Nana Akufo Addo, to humbly note that advancing the status of young people in
Africa and Ghana for that matter, would require innovative investment, which is
strategic and resourceful,” he said.
Mr Donkor said such investments
should include; services that are designed for the most marginalised youth, and
to strengthen the ability of aspiring young leaders to enrich their future
through making use of their potentials within safe environments, where guidance
was offered.
He observed that youth development
for employment and leadership was crucial to resolving the current “economic
trend all over the world especially Africa”.
Mr Donkor continued, “As we focus on
Safe Spaces for Youth, it is important that our attention be drawn to the fact
that the political crisis that youth experience is due to poor leadership and
governance, that puts youth outside of decision making at local, local,
national, regional and international levels, whereas moral crisis faced by
young people was the result of a lack of direction.
He said what the youth needed was a
future that was hopeful and positive. With resources and tools, that enabled
the building of self-awareness and also enabled the youth take charge of the
future as individuals as well as catalysts for change in their various
communities.
Mr Donkor urged the youth to identify
safe spaces, where they could safely interact and find encouragement as well as
guidance and commended the National Youth Authority for establishing a
rehabilitation centre for tramadol abusers saying, “let us all join the fight
to save our nation. Talk to someone to know their concern. You might be a
messiah.”
Madam Christa Sanders, Director of
Webster University-Ghana, urged young people to strive towards developing
competence that held global value as the world was now a global village.
Madam Sanders said a key strategy for
building this kind of competence, was to create safe spaces, where people could
uncover their innermost talents and abilities without inhibition.
International Youth Day has been set
aside by the UN, to celebrate the youth and address their concerns in their
various endeavours.
Impact Ghana Agenda is a youth based
hub in Ghana with the aim of empowering young people to contribute to social
development and nation building.
GNA