YOP project targets 15,000 youth

Liberia’s Minister of Youth and Sports Mr. Saah C. N’Tow says a World Bank funded Youth Opportunities Project will be launched here on Monday, 9 January to benefit 15,000 Liberians.

He told state broadcaster ELBC on Wednesday morning, 4 January that the Ministry will launch project, targeting young Liberians between 15 and 35 years.
Of the 15,000 persons being earmarked for the Youth Opportunities Project or YOP Liberia, 50 percent will benefit vulnerable female youth during the recruitment exercise.
Minister N’Tow says the project will last for five years following which he expects beneficiaries to stand on their own. He added that the project is intended to help empower young people, through farming and making of community garden, among others.
According to him, 2,000 of the targeted beneficiaries will come from Monrovia, Montserrado County, while the rest will come from the remaining 14 counties here.
The Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment or LACE will be responsible to recruit 10,000 vulnerable youth between 18 and 35 years in rural communities, according to the Minister.
He says the recruits will be supported with farming tools and seeds to enable them engage in communal farming in their respective communities. Minister N’Tow suggested that the Ministry of Youth and Sports could not do without LACE because the agency is involved in community development, noting that the project endeavors to address critical areas of youth development.
He said the program would improve access to income generation while strengthening the government’s capacity to implementing its social cash transfer program across the country.

By Bridgett Milton-Editing by Jonathan Browne