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22.10.2008 General News

'NYEP has come to stay'

22.10.2008 LISTEN
By The Statesman

The Deputy National Coordinator of the National Youth Employment Programme, Oduro Kwarteng, has assured Ghanaian youth that the next NPP government will continue with the NYEP and even expand it to cover more people as against the wish of the opposition National Democratic Congress who are determined to "face out' the programme when voted back to power. 

The National Youth Employment Programme, a novelty of the Kufuor Administration, was launched on October 3, 2006 in Accra by the President as a panacea to the youth unemployment menace in the country and currently employs more than 108,000 Ghanaian youth.

However, the main opposition party the NDC, notably its vice presidential candidate John Mahama, says the programme is partisan and for that matter his party will face it out when given the mandate to govern the country thereby threatening the livelihood of many Ghanaians.

But the Deputy National Coordinator bets to differ, saying the NYEP is a national programme and for that matter serves as a lasting solution to arresting the youth unemployment situation the nation is crippling with.

According to him, the NYEP is training the youth and empowering them economically to contribute their quota towards the socio-economic development of the country.

Adding that, the programme 'is a systematic plan of a government who thinks about the wellbeing of its people to empower them economically.'

Mr Oduro Kwarteng, who was speaking at Techiman during a NYEP durbar at the weekend, therefore entreated the beneficiaries of the programme and the entire citizenry to pray for the government to sustain it as the opposition is bent on collapsing it.

He noted that the NYEP is a 'stepping stone' to achieving greater heights in life and therefore asked the beneficiaries to take every opportunity to improve on their knowledge and skills. 

He said the NYEP is a 'demand-driving' programme, explaining that each of the ten modules under the programme have provided gainful employment for the youth, fulfilling the rationale for its establishment.

The Chief Executive for Techiman, Prince Yaw Donyina, stressed that the NYEP has come to enhance the living standards of the youth and asked them to continue to repose their confidence in the NPP government by voting for it come December 7.

He assured the gathering that there will be peace before, during and after the impending elections and charged them to be ambassadors of peace in their respective communities.

The gathering brought together the 712 beneficiaries of the programme in the Techiman Municipality as well as all the districts and municipal coordinators of the NYEP in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Beneficiaries gave testimonies about how the programme has transformed their lives.

They however appealed to President Kufuor to consider an upward adjustment of their salaries to reflect the current global crisis.

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