August 12, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
The Minister of Youth Affairs, Mohamed Oman Bangura has assured that government will put more resources on the agricultural sector as the oxygen for the economic emancipation of the youths.
He made this assurance following the commemoration of the International Youth Day which falls on 12th August on the theme: Transforming Food Systems: Youth Innovation for Human and Planetary Health.
The Youth Minister admonished young people to embrace farming as the government is trying to transform it from the traditional method to mechanized farming. He noted that every chiefdom can now boast of hundred hectares of farm each with the government having provided thirty two million Leones worth of seedlings for each of the chiefdom youth farms.
He said government is creating the enabling environment for young people to get into farming which he said is the engine for the country’s economic growth and by extension the solution to the employment problem faced by the youths.
According to the Minister, young people should empower themselves with the requisite skills to fit in the agricultural sector which he said will continue to provide more jobs for the youths.
Minister Bangura said there will be more access to finance for the youths noting that over 30% of the beneficiaries to the Munafa Fund are youths.
It could be recalled that in 1999, through resolution 54/120, the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the recommendation made by the World Conference of Ministers Responsible for Youth that 12th August be declared International Youth Day as a way to promote better awareness of the World Programme of Action for Youth which was adopted in 1995 (resolution 50/81).