By Dennis Peprah,
GNA Sunyani, Dec. 8, GNA-The National Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has made significant achievements this year, creating direct employment for thousands of young people in the security, sanitation, health and other key sectors of the economy nationwide.
According to Mr Kofi Baah Agyepong, the Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, the agency had engaged 15,000 Community Police Assistants, and 6,000 community health workers as well as 1,500 community prison assistants.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Sunyani, Mr Agyepong said additionally, the agency had engaged 45,000 sanitation workers, 6,000 insurance agents, and 4,000 farm workers nationwide.
Mr Ageypong and other key staff of the YEA were in the Bono Region to launch the agency’s flagship Business Employment Assistance Programme in Sunyani on Monday December 11.
The Vice President Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is expected to launch the Programme, an initiative aimed at nurturing young entrepreneurs, empowering them to generate employment opportunities for the large pool of unemployed youths in the country.
Mr Agyepong indicated the private sector remained critical in building a robust economy, saying the agency had offered 5,000 entrepreneurship trainees and more than 70,000 indirect jobs through partnership with the private sector.
“It has been a result-oriented agency, delivering huge socio-economic interventions and impacting on hundreds of thousands of young people.
So far, in its lifespan, the agency has touched about a million young lives. It has been a springboard for hurdles, a torch in the darkness and a great starter for lots of young people”, Mr Agyepong indicated.
The National Youth and Employment Programme (NYEP) was launched in November 2006, aiming to provide decent employment opportunities and address poverty reduction, healthcare, education, and governance.
Reforms were carried out to enhance control mechanisms and expand the programme’s scope and this led to the transition from the NYEP to the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA).
In 2012, the NYEP underwent review to strengthen its operations to incorporate entrepreneurship, and consequently re-named GYEEDA, however in 2013, management challenges prompted the appointment of an Impact Assessment Review Committee.
The five-member committee recommended the establishment of the YEA, as a public service organization, backed by a Legislative Instrument in 2015.
Thus the Agency came into existence under the Youth Employment Agency Act 2015 (Act 887) with the mandate to empower the youth between ages 15 to 35 through job creation to enable them to contribute meaningfully to the sustainable socio-economic development of the nation.
GNA