The Founding President of the Institute for Liberty and Economic Education (ILEE), Eric Coffie, says the Institute exists to advocate for human rights, individual freedom, free markets and prosperity for every Ghanaian.
He was speaking at the maiden edition of the Institute’s flagship program, the Nyansapo Fellowship.
Mr. Coffie explained that the Nyansapo Fellowship is designed to train young people, especially students from various universities, in policy advocacy and policy analysis. The core goal is to equip them to identify policy knots – regulatory barriers that hinder entrepreneurship and economic development in Ghana.
“These young people have been trained to identify some of these barriers, which is the policy knot, which we call the Nyansapo – a knot which needs to be untied. The Nyansapo Fellowship is to untie, to remove these regulatory barriers,” he said.
He noted that the fellowship is about policy analysis and advocating for human rights while promoting economic freedom and free market principles.
Mr. Coffie clarified the structure of the organization, stating that the programme is run under the ILEE Policy Institute, which is the policy arm of the Institute for Liberty and Economic Education, focused on addressing policy issues in Ghana and advocating for sound policies for national freedom and development.
On whether the fellowship will continue, he confirmed that this is the maiden edition but it will be an annual programme.
“Yes, this is our maiden edition, and we seek to keep doing this every year. It will be an annual programme because we need to train more people in policy analysis. We cannot leave policy analysis to just a few bunch of experts,” he stressed.
He added that policy is vital to national development, yet most young people follow celebrities while it is policymakers who make the real decisions that affect the country. Getting young people interested in policy analysis will therefore help the nation develop better.
Mr. Coffie also disclosed that while the maiden edition started with public universities due to their large numbers, there are plans to extend the fellowship to private universities in subsequent editions.