State Of The Nation Address, 2015: Youth Matters Worth Noting

The Foundation for Youth,Peace and Development (FYPD),wish to commend the Government of Ghana for the attention it has given to acts of corruption in two main youth development institutions in the country, namely; the National Service Scheme(NSS) and the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency(GYEEDA).

We particularly find the disclosure by the President of the Republic,His Exellency John Dramani Mahama during the 2015 state of the Nation Address, that as a result of investigations authorized by him,the scheme and for that matter the state has been spared over twenty million Ghana Cedis which would otherwise have ended up in the account of corrupt officials.

The FYPD indeed, finds it very disappointing,that the leadership of an institution which is meant to train the youth of the nation as responsible citizen could compromise on its noble objective because of their parochial pursuit.

We wish to add, that we are confident in the leadership of Dr.Kpassa Whyte,a man known for his respect for honesty and reliability in several fields of endeavours. It is our hope, that he and his team will work assiduously to transform the NSS into a reputable institution for the training of the nation's tertiary school leavers into responsible citizens.

The introduction of the electronic payment system is most appropriate, as far as dealing with the problem of ghost names on the scheme's payroll is concerned.

Further more,we acknowledge Government's efforts at bringing fraudulent officials and service providers under the GYEEDA programme to face the law.As pointed out by the President in his address, retrieval of monies involved is most crucial since that will go a long way to augment resources of the Youth Employment Agency.

Once again,the FYPD find it hard to believe, that some officials and service providers of GYEEDA could callously ignore the palpable suffering of the Ghanaian youth, and squander with such rapacity, amount of monies meant to alleviate their hardships through job creation under the programme.

We also wish to laud Government effort at regularizing youth employment matters by giving the subject a legal backing.Indeed,the coming into been of the Youth Employment Agency(YEA) is much likely to attend to youth employment matters without partisan connotations and other biases.

On the other hand,our search indicates that all is not well with the Youth Enterprise Fund because majority of the youth have been deprived of information on it.

Indeed, many young Ghanaians keep trooping to District offices of the National Youth Authority with the hope of accessing the fund,thus confirming our earlier suggestion that channeling it through the NYA would have made matters easier for them as well as managers of the fund.

It would have also ensured much transparency in the application and disbursement process and taken out biases in its implementation in general.

This notwithstanding,it is our hope,that the measures outlined by the President in his address will be diligently pursued for the good of the youth and the people of Ghana at large.

Joseph Tetteh Executive Director,FYPD 0244571090.e-mail:[email protected]