BOOSTING YOUTH EMPLOYMENT

THE National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) yesterday received a major boost when the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment (MMYE) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to enable the bank to provide financial management services for the NYEP's accounts.
Under the agreement, the ADB is expected to open accounts for about 108,000 employees of the programme across the country and through that effect the payment of the monthly allowances of the employees until such a time that the bank will be reimbursed by the government.
The DAILY GRAPHIC believes that this laudable initiative can be nurtured to provide jobs for the teeming mass of unemployed youth in the country.
But to attain that, the programme must be managed efficiently in order to sustain it and ameliorate the frustrations and hardships that some of the employees have to endure as a result of delays in the payment of their allowances.
The announcement of an initial deposit of GH¢6 million by the government justifies its commitment to find answers to the delays that are associated with the payment of the allowances or salaries of the youth working in the health, education, sanitation and community policing modules of the NYEP.
Whatever the criticisms levelled against the NYEP, all shades of opinion agree that if it is managed well, it can accelerate growth in the areas where the youth can render useful services to the public.
Time and again we have killed very laudable initiatives because they were not introduced by governments that we support. Like the proverbial dog, we give them bad names to be able to hang them.
The DAILY GRAPHIC calls on all well-meaning people to avoid the negative propaganda in order not to disrupt the programme.
The good news is that the political parties that have pronounced on the NYEP have refrained from giving the impression that they will scrap it when they come to power.
However, when the NYEP was introduced by the government, the doubting Thomases were uncertain about its viability and sustainability and even tagged it as ‘job for the boys’. Their concerns are understandable, though, in view of some of the barren promises that have been made in the past.
The DAILY GRAPHIC hopes that the political parties have genuine plans for the NYEP and that the public pronouncements are not meant to win the votes of those employed under the programme.
We call on ADB officials to give of their best to make the scheme work to everybody’s expectation. They should scrutinise every application presented and make sure that history is not repeated by way of ghost workers.
Every Ghanaian needs to support the programme to enable it to achieve its fullest objective because it is being funded through our taxes by way of funds from the GETFund, the National Health Insurance Scheme Levy, the Ghana Road Fund, the District Assemblies Common Fund and the HIPC Fund.
To sustain the NYEP, we should begin looking beyond the MoU so that in the near future it can be mainstreamed into the public service administration of the country.