The Project Director of the Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE) project, Mrs Vera Kafui Mills-Odoi has been awarded for her contributions to the development of the construction industry in Ghana.
The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) Construction Sector and the Construction Industry Development Forum (CIDF) Ghana, which awarded her, conferred on her the title “The Youth Ambassador in Construction.”
Under Mrs Mills-Odoi’s leadership, YIEDIE has stimulated the interest of the Youth in Construction and has trained over 12,300 tradesmen in construction in major cities including Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi, Tema and Ashiaman.
Mills-Odoi has done well to reduce youth unemployment by equipping them with practical skills and linking them to sustainable employment.
YIEDIE in collaboration with the AGI Construction Sector had organised four city-level job readiness and mentoring platform to support 2,820 youth tradesmen with mentorship and exposure to professional networks and market opportunities in the construction sector.
Mr Rockson Dogbegah, Chairman, AGI Construction Sector who presented the award to Mills-Odoi at the 2018 Water Africa and West Africa Building and Construction Exhibition and Seminar in Accra on Thursday earlier said Mills-Odoi had stimulated the interest of youth in the construction sector and also whet the appetite of stakeholders in the activities of the construction industry.
He said the YIEDIE Project Director’s passion and concern for the construction industry and youth development was unparalleled.
“Mrs Mills-Odoi is providing the direction for the youth in the Construction Industry,” he said.
Mills-Odoi in her remarks expressed gratitude to the AGI Construction Sector and the CIDF-GH for the honour done her and pledged to work harder to create more opportunities for the youth in the construction sector.
She said the prospects in the construction sector were huge and it is estimated that about 700,000 jobs would be created in the Construction sector in Ghana between 2015 and 2020.
Mills-Odoi stressed that the youth had to be well trained and equipped to take advantage of “these opportunities” so that the jobs would not be taken by foreigners.
According to the YIEDIE Project Director the construction sector was not attractive to the youth because of the “way the sector has been packaged and marketed.”
She disclosed that the YIEDIE programme had been designed to create economic opportunities in Ghana construction sector for the disadvantaged youth.
The five-year project, she said, was being implemented by Global Communities in partnership with the Master Card Foundation and was expected to reach 23.700 youth between the ages of 17-24 in Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ashiaman and Tema.
