body-container-line-1
25.06.2009 General News

NYEP Starts Head Count

By Daily Guide
NYEP Starts Head Count
25.06.2009 LISTEN

Abuga Pele As part of activities lined up by the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) to take inventory of all beneficiaries at the various postings, a head count exercise has been scheduled for this June and July 2009 respectively.

Briefing the press in Accra, the Acting National Coordinator of NYEP, Mr. Abugah Pele, indicated the move was also aimed at deleting names of personnel from the programme's payroll since they no longer served under it.

Again, he said the exercise would help restructure, strengthen and save the programme millions of Ghana cedis which was hitherto paid to non-existing staff and also to expand it in order to empower the teeming unemployed youth.

According to him, additional 100,000 unemployed Ghanaians would be recruited into the programme between July this year and January 2010.

The NYEP was launched in October 2006 with the overriding objective of reducing unemployment in Ghana.

It was designed to cater for the various categories of unemployed youth between the ages of 18 to 35 years.

Mr. Pele noted that a review of the current employment strategies would be in place to transform NYEP into a permanent and better funded employment agency in the country.

Touching on some of the challenges facing the programme, he revealed that there had been irregular and late release of funds from the source, resulting in late disbursement of allowances.

He lamented the programme was faced with inadequate office accommodation and transportation for staff, citing a few reported cases of attacks on NYEP offices, especially in Tamale.

Mr. Pele pointed out that media reports which suggested that government was in the process of terminating employment contracts were untrue.

“I must mention here that some publications in the media had suggested that government is planning to terminate the employment contracts of the District Employment Coordinators. It must be emphasised that these assertions are baseless and unfounded”, he stated.

However, government, Mr. Pele mentioned, was committed to transforming the NYEP into a permanent and better funded employment agency, with plans to implement appropriate exit plans for beneficiaries.

He therefore appealed to all to cooperate with government in its effort to streamline the programme and make it more sustainable for the Ghanaian youth.

By Jennifer Frimpomah Wereko

body-container-line