Accra — Seven groups of young persons drawn from five schools and a community in the Bolgatanga Municipality have been trained on business development and marketing skills.

This was disclosed at a colorful event in Bolga to award the best emerged companies and to prepare them for a business development competition scheduled to take place in Accra in three months. The training was organized by the Youth Harvest Foundation, a non governmental organization with support from Junior Achievement, Ghana, a subsidiary of Junior Achievement Worldwide based in UK.

Addressing a gathering of about three hundred students and the general public most of who came to offer moral support to their favorite companies, a representative of Junior Achievement, Ghana, Mr. Kugblenu Kwabena disclosed that the Upper East region was the first in the country to complete the program organized by his organization. He said that this was a clear testimony that the region has the human resource potential capable of bringing its people out of the abject poverty that they currently face.

Mr. Kwabena Kubglenu said that the program was designed to introduce critical business thinking into the youth so that they will be able to generate business ideas and translate them into products that would put them in employment. According to the JA representative, the Youth Harvest Foundation was the only organization that is pragmatically partnering with the youth in the north in the provision of business skills and for that matter in the provision of hope for them. His organization was offering every assistance necessary to ensure the success of their programs.

Mr. Kwabena Kugblenu was, however, full of regret that Ghana's current school curriculum was only capable of churning out certificated graduates without employable skills. He said that while formal education was good a nation benefits fully from it only if it is capable of empowering its citizenry against poverty and diseases. He therefore urged educational authorities to take a second look at the educational training curriculum so as to provide a brighter future and one of certainty for the youth.

In all, five companies from five schools namely; Bolgatanga secondary school, Bolga Girls Secondary, Zuarungu Secondary School, Bolga Technical Institute and the Bolga Women's Training Institute took part in the Competition. There was also one company formed by some youth from the community. Products that were exhibited by the companies ranged from textiles to food. All the companies said that they got their seed capital from the sale of shares to the public, in this case the student community.

As a selection process, members of the public who were present at the program were allowed to vote to select the best four companies to represent the region in the national competition in March, 2010. At the of the voting the following companies emerged as winners; Voice of God Limited, from Bolga Technical Institute, followed by Bolga Women's Training Institute, GAYA, from Bolga Technical, and Trinity Company limited came second, third and fourth respectively. These four companies will therefore represent the region in a national contest to be held in March, 2010.