The Minister for Tourism and Member of Parliament for the Evalue-Gwira Ajomoro Constituency, Hon. Catherine Afeku has lauded the Ministry of Youth and Sports for the construction of one of the country’s Youth and Sports Centers in Axim, insisting it will boost tourism in the area.

The Sports Minister Hon. Isaac Asiamah, on Saturday cut a sod for the construction of the multipurpose facility which will have a 5000 (expandable) capacity FIFA standard stadium, an 8-lane tartan track, a multipurpose sports court, an ICT Resource Centre, a Youth Counseling Centre, a gym and a modern restaurant.

The Tourism Minister who has passion for culture expressed he happiness after the sod cutting exercise and explained how the center can help shape the youth in the area and boost tourism in the long run.

“Every ministry has a policy on youth development. And for us in the creative arts, whichever way you are able to source talents within the youth population; it is part of creative arts.

“If people are able to run, play tennis, basketball, football, etc, they are part of arts manifestation in the human being,” she told GHANAguardian.com

“So we will be able to collaborate with the Youth and Sports Ministry in terms of unearthing talents and especially when they have a youth counselling center in the facility, they will be able to counsel people that being a painter, or an artist or carpenter is as good as being a doctor, a teacher or an engineer.”

She further explained the economic benefits of skills training and how the country at leagr stands to gain from them.

“In other parts of the world, beauty therapist and make-up artists make up a million-dollar industry but we don’t see it as such. The make-up industry today is worth $64b – more than the manufacturing industry. So we need to counsel young people who have those innate qualities to bring it up,” she added.

“You saw these young people doing some beautiful cultural display but they aren’t encouraged because they aren’t lawyers, or doctors or pursuing any of the traditional careers. But these jobs are creating careers for many people and given them huge money.

So this center for us is a welcoming idea and it’s even long overdue,” she concluded.

The Youth and Sports Centers are to be constructed in all the ten regions in the country as part of government’s efforts to develop sports and culture, and make them a top GDP earners for the country.