“The on-going restructuring of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) is taking too long to complete,” Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), a youth development oriented non-governmental organization, has said.
Mr Salifu Mahama, Programmes Manager of YEfL, who said this at a consultative meeting organized by YEfL for some youth groups and GYEEDA officials in Tamale on Wednesday, expressed worry that this would worsen the youth unemployment situation in the country.
Key points for discussion at the meeting, which formed part of activities by YEfL to mark May Day celebrations, included “The State of GYEEDA, are there hopes for the youth, what is the state of the overhaul and restructuring of GYEEDA, should the youth keep their hopes on GYEEDA towards finding sustainable jobs?
Government, after investigation last year which established inappropriate dealings at GYEEDA, stopped its (GYEEDA) operations and announced that it (GYEEDA) was going through a restructuring process to better serve its stakeholders.
Mr Mahama noted that GYEEDA was a major avenue by the government to ensure youth employment saying “If it is in this situation where we do not know the status of its (GYEEDA) restructuring, then youth unemployment will worsen in the country.”
He said appointing somebody to head the restructuring of GYEEDA but not stating any definite timeline to conclude the restructuring exercise had left many stakeholders in a state of confusion.
Mr Mahama called on the government to come clean on the state of GYEEDA and job creation for the youth, some of whom completed even tertiary education over five years now but were yet to find sustainable jobs.
He said based on YEfL’s enquiries at GYEEDA Secretariat and analysis of other documents, “We believe that GYEEDA does not have any hopes or opportunities for the youth.”
Mr Mahama also spoke about some of the initiatives being implemented by YEfL to equip the youth with self-employable skills, which included an annual entrepreneurial training for 60 selected youth where at least 10 of them were provided with start-up capital to implement their business ideas.
Mr Abdul-Rahman Abdul Latif, Deputy Coordinator of GYEEDA at Savelugu/Nanton Municipal Assembly, said GYEEDA held bright hopes for the youth and stressed the need for GYEEDA service providers to stick to the terms of contracts they signed with GYEEDA and execute them (contracts) appropriately for all to benefit and ensure value for money.
He said the problem with GYEEDA was about the inability of its service providers to fully execute contracts they signed with GYEEDA.