Your Cash Will Surely Come-- Sir John Assures Angry Youth In Afforestation

Chief Executive Officer of the National Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, has called on beneficiaries of the government's Youth in Afforestation Program to exercise patience over their delayed allowances.

He said his outfit is aware of the delay in the payment of allowances, but is working to have the monies paid as soon as possible.

Beneficiaries of the program in the Eastern Region on Tuesday threatened to embark on series of demonstrations citing the non-payment of their allowance and poor working conditions.

Prior to that, several others in the Greater Accra and other areas, had also protested the non-payment of allowances.

Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, popularly known as Sir John, in a Citi News interview said the some of the beneficiaries have enrolled on other government youth intervention programs and may be receiving double allowances, and so his outfit has expunged their names from the commission’s register.

He said beneficiaries with the right records have been paid up to July, and his outfit is working hard to get funds to pay the August and September allowances.

“There are some of them who have enrolled on other programs and our records have captured their names as being on two or several platforms and therefore we have also expunged their names from our records. So there are several cogent reasons why some of them may not have received their allowances, but to the broader majority of the people whose records are okay, we have paid everybody up to July. Now I'm looking for August and September allowances to pay so they should exercise patience and if they check their e-zwich account, they will know that they have been paid; not because of their demonstration, but because it is right that we pay them.”

Pay us our allowance
Some workers of the Youth in Afforestation model of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), last month gave the government an ultimatum of up to the end of September to release their accumulated allowances else risk having them embark on a strike.

The workers, who say they hadn't received payment for over three months, said their contracts had been also breached.

“We have given them up to the end of this month to settle all those indebtedness. We understand this is a donor-funded project so if funds have been released why should people work without allowances,” one of the beneficiaries, warned in a Citi News interview.