Tunis: British Ambassador to Tunisia Helen Winterton said on Tuesday her country supports Tunisia's efforts to develop its educational programmes, especially through capacity-building in English and soft skills in educational institutions. The United Kingdom aims to broaden the scope of its partnership programme over the next period to include second chance schools and vocational training centres, the ambassador said as she met Tuesday with Employment and Vocational Training Ministier Lotfi Dhieb. This in addition to supporting economic empowerment programmes, mainly through partnership with the African Development Bank (AfDB), The meeting helped follow up partnership programmes in employment and vocational training, reads a ministry press release. Dhieb commended partnership with the UK in all fields. He also outlined the ministry's priorities, mainly an improved employability of jobseekers among higher education and vocational training graduates. In this respect, he emphasised the importance of scaling up partnership in private entrepreneurship and support of young promoters. There is also need to increase the attractiveness of vocational training so as to attract as many drop-outs as possible and build their capacities so that they can easily integrate the national or international job market. The creation of the second chance school in the governorate of Kairouan under a partnership between Tunisia, the UK and the UNICEF, is a qualitative leap aimed to reintegrating early school drop-outs into the training system, the minister added. It is highly important to beef up language and soft skills capacities of jobseekers and coordinate action in this area, Dhieb further said. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse Ghana's economy grew 2.9 per cent growth in 2023 lower than to 3.8 per cent recorded in 2022, the Ghana Statistical Service said on Wednesday. The Statistical Service indicated that the last quarter of 2023, recorded the highest real GDP growth rate, which was 3.8 per cent, the same growth rate recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022. In terms of nominal values, GSS noted that the country's GDP, including Oil and Gas estimate at constant 2013 prices for the fourth quarter of 2023 was GHS50,645.7 million (about 50 billion) compared to GHS48,796.8 million (about 48bn) in the fourth quarter of 2022. On sectoral basis, the services sector recorded the highest growth of 5.1 per cent, followed by the agriculture sector at 4.5 per cent, while industry sector recorded a GDP growth of 1.6 per cent. The Statistical Service noted that this was the first time in about 11 years that four of the 22 sub-sectors (Crops; Trade, Repair of Vehicles and Household Goods; Mining and Quarrying and Manufacturing) have accounted f or more than 50 percent of Ghana's GDP. Meanwhile, Ms Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has challenged the government to work towards achieving a five per cent GDP growth. 'What we want to see is a dynamic economy; we want to see Ghana back to a five per cent growth or more, and we believe that this is achievable,' she said, during a media engagement with some selected journalists in Accra. Source: Ghana News Agency