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Sunyani, Tuesday, JUne 07,

The  African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is a game changer in the African business setting, for that reason, adequately resourcing the youth mentally and educating them on its benefits is a crucial expectation.

“If our youths are enlightened about the benefits of the AfCFTA and its utilization, then ending unemployment within our continent would no longer be a mirage, but a reality”.

Mr. Atta Akoto Senior, President of the Sunyani Youth Development Association (SYDA) stated, adding that if the youth are well informed about the full benefits of the AfCFTA, they can reap the best to enable them to grow their business across countries within the African continent.

He made this known in a welcome address at an African Youth Entrepreneurship Summit (YES-Africa) launched in Sunyani on Tuesday and called for an intense education of the African youth in that regard. 

According to him, the headquarters of the AfCFTA sited in Ghana could not have come at any better time than this, particularly, during the heap period of Covi-19 when our youths demonstrated their industriousness and innovations in creations and inventions to help government combat the pandemic.

It is therefore important to target the core communities of the continent with the AfCFTA drawn programmes that could benefit the majority of our youths to avert the escalating irregular and rural urban migration, he stated.

Speaking on the SYDA`s YES-Africa which will be hosted in Sunyani in November this year, Mr. Akoto said the summit symbolizes the need to reverse the energies and fearlessness of the youths in the Bono regions to engage in entrepreneurship.

He noted one of the reasons people risk their lives across the desert and the Mediterranean Sea to seek greener pastures abroad is lack of decent and well-paying jobs, therefore, the summit focus of helping them to identify where they can get support, mentorships, and encouragements so that they can channel their energies to be daring in doing businesses.

Mr. Akoto said it is on record that Bono youths lead the league of irregular migrants in Ghana, saying, guiding them to engage in entrepreneurship ventures as well as knowing their target market would help Africa win the war on irregular migration and unemployment.

The YES-Africa summit is therefore positioned to make the Bono Regions a hub of Ghana’s youth entrepreneurship as a means of halting the menace of irregular migration that has engulfed the region.

The project focuses on bringing together African leaders, youth ministers, development partners, businesses, entrepreneurs many others to vividly discuss how the entire continent could factor and go by tailored entrepreneurship direction for the young ones in the areas of agriculture, sports, skills training, factories and education and youth empowerment that aimed at employment opportunities for poverty eradication in Africa.

This summit would be made up of workshops on entrepreneurship development, developing football entrepreneurs, coaching and mentoring sessions, integrity driven workshops, grand expo and other interactive sessions for connections and link creation.

We are optimistic that if this summit gets the needed support and sponsorships from our development partners, Government, NGOs and multinational organizations would set the base for African Community Youth Development and a definite sight in ending poverty on the continent.

“Every Youth in Africa Matters, YES-Africa, we believe we can”.