The Acting Ashanti Regional Youth Director of the National Youth Authority, Mr. George Orwell Amponsah has recommended that all proceeds from the sale or auction of the luxurious properties of drug convicts or peddlers should be channeled into youth development programmes.
According to him, statistics indicated that more than 80 percent of Junior High School students are engaged in drug use and its related vices.
He said a situational analysis study concluded that use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs was more prevalent among junior high school students than those at the Senior High School level.
Addressing the Ashanti Regional commemoration of African Youth Day in Kumasi last week Wednesday, Mr. Amponsah disclosed that Ghana ranked fourth in availability and alcohol use among high school students, out of 14 African nations, and called on government to impose extra tax on alcoholic beverages to fund youth development programmes.
The acting Ashanti Regional Youth Director of the National Youth Authority mentioned the modern way of life and harsh economic conditions as factors which compelled the youth to become individualistic and disconnected from the rest of society and stressed that it was high time society recognized youth potential and harnessed the youth divided.
The Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports, Pius Hadzide on his part said the government had allocated GHc 78,796,769 to the National Youth Authority (NYA) for youth development related programmes.
According to him, his government was also constructing ten ultra-modern youth centre’s across the country and world be completed before the end of this year.
The Deputy Minister said the NPP government was taking bold steps to address all challenges confronting the youth in the country and called on society to prioritize youth development since they constituted greater proportion of the population.
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