By Albert Futukpor, GNA
Accra, March 16, GNA – YEFL-Ghana’s advocacy efforts calling for the full disbursement of statutory allocations from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to key youth development institutions have reached the floor of the Parliament of Ghana.
Dr Mahama Tiah Abdul-Kabiru, Member of Parliament for Walewale raised the issue in a statement in Parliament on Thursday, March 12, urging the government and the Ministry of Finance to ensure strict compliance with legal provisions that mandated the release of five per cent of the DACF to the National Youth Authority (NYA) and the 10% to the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).
This came after YEFL-Ghana had held several engagements with key Members of Parliament from the Finance Committee, Business Committee, and Members of the Youth and Sports Select Committee.
YEFL-Ghana, a youth empowerment focused NGO based in Tamale, is currently pushing for an increase of the allocation of the DACF share to NYA and YEA from 1.2% to 2.5% where full compliance cannot be immediately met.
Dr Abdul-Kabiru’s call followed findings from YEFL-Ghana’s “Follow the Money” campaign, which has been tracking DACF allocations to the NYA and YEA from 2017 and 2025.
The Follow the Money campaign is an advocacy strategy being pursued by YEFL-Ghana under the Empowerment for Life Programme seeking to influence the government to comply with the laws to release the full funding amounts as stipulated in the laws to the NYA and YEA to support youth empowerment and development in the country.
Dr Abdul-Kabiru said data from the campaign revealed worrying inconsistencies in DACF disbursements in recent years despite clear statutory provisions backing the allocations.
He explained that the legal framework established through the YEA Act and the NYA Act mandated the DACF Secretariat to allocate 5% of the DACF to the NYA and 10# to the YEA annually.
He said, however, available data from the advocacy campaign indicated that between 2020 and 2024, the NYA received an average of only 2.8# of the fund while the YEA received about 5.8%, which were significantly below the statutory thresholds.
He added that the situation worsened in the first quarter of 2025 when both agencies received just 0.6% of their expected allocations.
Dr Abdul-Kabiru said the decline in statutory funding undermined the country’s youth development agenda and limited the capacity of the agencies to implement programmes aimed at addressing youth unemployment.
He noted that young people continued to face serious challenges including limited access to entrepreneurial support, funding opportunities, and technical skills training.
Data from the Ghana Statistical Service showed that about 72.4# of the estimated 1.3 million unemployed persons in the third quarter of 2023 were youth between the ages of 15 and 35.
Dr Abdul-Kabiru emphasized that predictable financing was critical for youth-focused institutions to implement programmes such as skills training, entrepreneurship support, and youth empowerment initiatives across the country.
He called on the Ministry of Finance and the DACF Secretariat to ensure the full and timely release of statutory allocations to the NYA and YEA.
He further urged the relevant institutions to engage the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth and Sports to examine the causes of the funding shortfalls and propose measures to restore compliance beginning with the next national budget.
GNA
Edited by Eric K. Amoh/Linda Asante Agyei