Sammi Awuku and Justin Kodua Frimpong
The National Youth Organizer of
the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Henry Nana Boakye has indicated that the giant
strides made in accelerating the provision of jobs to the teaming youth of
Ghana by the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), under the
leadership of Sammi Awuku and Justin Kodua Frimpong, Board Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) of YEA respectively have enhanced the image of the
agency
According to Nana B, as the NPP
Youth Organiser is affectionately called, the agency had lost its relevance
prior to the coming into office of the NPP government due to its poor handling
by the erstwhile John Mahama administration. He indicated that the NDC
government used the agency as a cash cow to siphon millions of US Dollars,
thereby relegating its job provision mandate to the abyss.
However, the agency according to
him has seen significant changes in its management strategies in the execution
of its core mandate in the past two and half years that the new Board and management
took over the running of the agency.
He indicated that the agency, since
2017, has employed about 107,000 youth under varied modules including Youth in
Agriculture, Afforestation, and Community Protection among others.
The agency is set to launch four
transformational initiatives with far-reaching solutions to youth unemployment
in the country. The initiatives which are expected to be launched on 2nd
October, 2019 by the Vice President, Alhaji Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia include the YEA
Job Center, Artisan Directory, Flagship Projects and Work Abroad.
The primary goal of the Job
Centre Ghana is to strategically position the agency to serve as a one-stop
shop to provide skills and connect job seekers to employers, aimed at
addressing the unemployment concerns of the youth in the country.
Whiles the agriculture-based
flagship programme will be a development programme which would be initiated in
various regions and districts focusing on the natural resource in the area, the
Work Abroad programme will also enable the export of young professionals such
as nurses and teachers, into other countries.
According to Nana B, these transformational initiatives are laudable as they focus on practical and high-impact solutions to unemployment.
By Nana Kwasi
