STRENGTHENING THE NYEP (JUNE 25, 20090

YOUTH employment is one of the biggest challenges facing the country.
Our communities and major streets in the cities have large armies of unemployed youth engaged in menial and unproductive labour. In recent times, the unemployment problem has been compounded by graduate unemployment.
The unemployment challenge does not seem to go away because while the universities try to empower the youth with entrepreneurial skills, the youth are unable to establish their own businesses because of lack of credit facilities.
The NDC government has pledged to provide jobs for the teeming masses. Indeed, its pledges of creating jobs and investing in people were part of the social contract it signed with the electorate in the 2008 electioneering.
The unemployed youth will certainly be looking up to the government to provide the avenues for jobs so that they can take care of themselves and their families.
To this group of people, the assurance by the government that it has no plans to terminate the employment contract of beneficiaries of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) is a welcome relief.
The National Co-ordinator of the NYEP, Mr Abuga Pele, said in Accra yesterday that the NYEP planned to recruit an additional 100,000 youth between July 2009 and January 2010.
Since its inception in 2006 the programme has registered 332,500 youth.
He reiterated the government’s commitment to transform the NYEP into a permanent, better-funded employment agency, adding that there were also plans to implement appropriate plans for the career progression and professional development of beneficiaries.
The DAILY GRAPHIC concedes that there are teething problems confronting the NYEP, such as the existence of ghost names and the delay in the payment of allowances to beneficiaries.
We add our voice to the call on the government to take the necessary steps to streamline the operations of the NYEP to weed out cheats from the system.
Therefore, the decision by the programme to engage in a head count exercise will expose the ghost names in the programme’s pay voucher, as well as their agents in other state institutions.
The unemployment problem cannot be resolved by the NYEP alone. The solution lies in inter-sectoral collaboration, so that all hands can be on deck to create jobs for the youth.
The growing unemployment rate can be a source of social conflict, political upheavals and a rise in the crime rate, for it is said that the devil finds work for idle hands.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is aware of the serious economic challenges confronting the country which make it difficult for the government to expand the economy to create jobs and wealth for the people. Our standpoint is that the unemployment problem, if left unresolved, can derail the gains so far made.
The DAILY GRAPHIC, therefore, encourages the government to support the NYEP to resolve the teething challenges so that it can be a source of sustainable employment and incomes for the youth.
The assurance by the National Co-ordinator of the NYEP should lay to rest fears that many beneficiaries will lose their jobs. The future of the NYEP and its beneficiaries are guaranteed.