President Akufo-Addo (middle), with some of the award winners at the Head of State awards ceremony at the Jubilee House
One hundred and sixty (160) Ghanaian youth have been honoured with Head of State awards.
This was after having successfully completed the prescribed activities of the scheme.
The Head of State award scheme is designed to give young people the opportunity to do volunteer work in communities, increase their fitness, develop their skills and take part in expeditions.
The award is also about “rooting out the doers’ to who the future belongs, nurturing their talents, stretching their capabilities, helping them to believe in themselves and instilling in them the culture of giving back to their community.”
Speaking at the 2021 Gold Award ceremony at the Jubilee House Thursday evening, President Akufo-Addo congratulated the winners and called for encouragement and support they require to ensure they grow up to become responsible adults in the country.
“These award recipients have demonstrated that young people in Ghana are responding with relish to challenges and they have all it takes to compete with other young people all over the world,” he said, adding “it must be stated that these young men and women, need our encouragement and help in any form to blossom into holistic young adults we can be proud of, and who can justifiably be proud of themselves.”
The President added “that encouragement is what the award scheme provides as a challenge. It enables them embark on a journey of self-discovery, to find out just how much they are capable of, sometimes to the surprise of others, more often to their own surprise.”
He reiterated his call on Ghanaian youth to take advantage of his administrations ‘You Start’ programme which has set aside GH¢10 million to support young Ghanaians who intend to start their own businesses or improve their existing businesses.
“Government would direct financial and technical support towards young entrepreneurs in the country to develop commercially viable businesses and create jobs for the youth. In other words, it will be a vehicle for supporting young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training, technical skills and mentoring to enable them launch and operate their own businesses,” he said.
The Executive Director for the Head of State Award Scheme – Ghana, Peter Akai Anum, said the Gold Award ceremony was a testimony of young peoples continued contribution to community and national development goals.
“Over the next 12 months, we shall be establishing Digital Youth Centres in the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions as part of our digital pilot project purposely to offer training to 1,000 young people in technology and digital marketing as part of their skills development,” he added.
Since its inception in Ghana in 1967, the Head of State Award Scheme has consistently focused on developing the ‘soft/core skills’ such as resilience, confidence, communication, and problem-solving skills of young people.
Through engaging in voluntary services; taking part in physical recreational activities, discovering personal interests, talents and skills for entrepreneurship; and learning about leadership through adventurous journeys, young people become confident, responsible, reflective, innovative and engaged learners.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu