Monrovia – Vice President Jewel Howard Taylor has emphasized the need to empower young people in the country by including them into the country’s job sector.
According to Vice President Taylor, the issue of job creation has been a major request from the youthful population during the 2017 presidential campaign period but assures them that the Weah’s administration is doing all to address their concerns.
Speaking Thursday at the launch of the Household Enterprise Program in Congo Town, she noted that though job creation remains a concern, it was impossible for the government to hire all youths at once.
“Government has a responsibility to provide a peaceful environment, to invite investors to come and visit us, to ask our partners to come and help us in places where we are having difficulties like providing training opportunities for our young people because I don’t care how many money we have, we can’t hire all of you,” VP Taylor said.
VP Taylor stated that in the face of ensuring employment opportunity for all, it was equally important that youth take advantage of various opportunities that could serve as a form of job creation for them.
She lauded youths who have taken advantage of the Youth Opportunity Project up to its current stage, attributing it to the beginning of their future sojourn.
“The future for you is not tomorrow, the future is now where you sit. Whatever small the funding you will get from this stage is, it will be something that you can use to transform your life,” Vice President Taylor noted.
“Because some people will get this money and they will not do the businesses they are talking about and in two to three weeks all that money will finish. Your destiny does not determine where you come from, your destiny is determined from the dream in your hearts.”
She, however, urged them to approach the program with courage, hard work, sacrifice and commitment. The Liberian Vice President wants young people in the country to see the country’s development as their own responsibility and not the government alone.
For his part, the Senior Program Officer for the Youth Opportunity Project Jesse Zangar lauded government and partners for introducing the program for young people in Liberia.
Mr. Zangar said the program came about as a replacement of other unsuccessful programs that were initiated in the past.
“We trained some young people in the past on the basis that there were companies coming but we didn’t take into consideration that there was land conflict, and as a result, companies were not able to absorb many young people. So when we were designing this program, we taught of empowering young people so that they themselves can be involved in activities for personal development,” Zangar averred.
He said the Household Enterprise Program has prepared young people in business development skills to enable them to have access to income and not formal employment.
Zangar also described the program as a subcomponent of the ‘Youth Opportunity Project’ initiated by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. It targets youths from 10 communities in Montserrado County.
“They will generate and establish enterprises that they will operate as a group and whatever revenue they generate is for them,” Zangar stated.
He maintained that the household enterprise development training is expected to last for one year and will focus on satisfying the need for construction and household materials through business. According to him, a rigorous monitoring system has been put in place to ensure that beneficiaries of the program do not lavish resources that will be given them.
Meanwhile, Mr. Zangar believes when the program is implemented it will help to improve the security system of the country and avoid young people from getting involved with violence.