By Rosemary Wayo
Tamale, August 16, GNA – The government has been called upon to prioritise and commit to releasing in full the five per cent of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund (DACF) as mandated by law to the National Youth Authority (NYA) for its programmes and activities.
The NYA is also to account for the 5% allocation of the DACF released to it so far by the Administrator of the DACF.
This was contained in a statement issued by YEFL-GHANA, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), signed by Mr Alhassan Abdul Ganiyu, its Technical Advisor on Youth Advocacy and Gender, and copied to the Ghana News Agency in Tamale.
The statement was to mark this year’s International Youth Day, on the theme: “Intergenerational Solidarity: Creating a World for All Ages.”
The statement said the 10-year National Youth Policy of Ghana, which expired in 2020 had delivered very little in its priority areas.
According to the statement, after the expiration of the policy, the NYA has developed a new National Youth Policy to serve as a comprehensive guide to youth development with a five-year implementation plan.
The plan is expected to be launched on International Youth Day in 2022. On the surface, the new policy is expected to provide a framework to improve youth development in the country.
“As we are excited about the new policy priority areas to be launched on International Youth Day, we are also primarily concerned with how the policy recommendations to be implemented will be funded.
It asked has been dedicated to fund the policy and how youth and CSOs would assess the progress of the implementation of the policy.
The statement registered the concern of YEFL-Ghana and, said: “We are concerned because youth CSOs had already pushed for the enactment of NYA Act 939 of 2016, with a clear funding allocation of 5% of the DACF under the Act.
This effort was in furtherance of securing sustainable funding and legislating the mandate of the NYA to oversee youth development.
“This is a significant milestone towards the sustainable funding of youth development in Ghana. The government demonstrated commitment and released a total of GHc149.7 million between 2018 and 2019 to the NYA.
However, according to the Auditor-General’s report for 2021, there is no evidence of the expenditure as well as the fact that the schedule of payments violated Article 252(3) of the 1992 Constitution.”
It added that “In the report, the Auditor General called for the suspension of the administration of funds to the NYA for the payments to be reconciled.
“This is cause for concern because it would be an impediment to the implementation process of the new National Youth Policy and the overall youth development in Ghana.”
It, therefore, called on all agencies, institutions, CSOs, and individuals to join efforts to demand that government commit to funding the NYA in line with the NYA Act 939 of 2016 to enable it to support youth development in the country.
GNA