A group photograph of participants
Henry Kerali, Country Director of the World Bank, has stressed the need to equip and educate the youth on technology and entrepreneurship to eradicate poverty in Ghana.
Speaking at the commemoration of this year’s Poverty Eradication Day last Wednesday in Accra, Mr Kerali said the celebration was focused on the youth who were mostly unemployed.
The international day for the eradication of poverty is embodied in Goal 1 of the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
Touching on the rate of poverty among the youth, he said the session was particularly geared towards preparing young people to critically think and identify problems and solve same while unearthing their potentials with available resources.
Other speakers for the event included Regina Honu, CEO of Soronko Solutions; Kofi Dadzie, CEO of Rancard; Ashwin Ravichandran, an interactive developer and Joycelyn Mends-Ainoo, an HR professional and associate consultant at L’aine Services Limited.
They advised the youth to adopt intensive skills which would go a long way to build their potential and capacity and ultimately earn them a living.
Certain challenges were identified among Ghanaian youth which keep them from getting themselves out of poverty.
These included the lack of proper communication skills, as well as soft skills needed by most employers, lack of access to internet which makes it difficult for most of them to get involved in the digital age in Africa.
In an interview, Christabel Dadzie, social protection specialist at the World Bank office, Ghana, stated that as part of efforts to assist government to implement policies in different areas, it was important that Ghana’s educational system adapted to the versatility of the modern world.
By Charles Cheku Armah