Justin Kodua, the Chief Executive Officer of Youth Employment Agency (YEA), has lauded the achievements of the agency in outperforming the NDC government within a space of four years, something which the latter failed to deliver in spite of its eight years in office.
Speaking in an interview, he flaunted the achievement of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as a performing party being in power, as against the NDC whom he reckons does little to change the economic plot.
He maintained the ruling party has done three times better in job creation for the youth in just 4 years than that of the 8 years of their major opponents.
“Under my steward at the Youth Employment Agency through our four major modules namely: YEA Job Center, YEA Work Abroad, YEA Flagship program (Agriculture) and YEA Artisanal industry, we can’t say we have solved all unemployment issues in the country but at least we have outperformed in our 4-year term than that of John Mahama’s 8 years in government.
“We have employed almost 150,000 youth in less than 4 years [and] we have paid even the arrears that was transferred to us by the NDC. Meanwhile, the NDC only employed some 63,000 under Mills and Mahama 8-year term in office.”
The YEA boss further appealed to all beneficiaries of Youth Employment Agency to transform their gratefulness into votes in next month’s general elections to ensure their jobs are secured.
Corroborating his assertion on tackling unemployment issues, Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, had days earlier lauded the Akufo-Addo-led administration creation of two million jobs in the formal sector since assuming office in 2017.
He noted that, the motive of the ruling party was to rectify “the hopelessness and despair that a lack of employment opportunities under the previous administration had plunged our youth into”.
“We took the bull by the horns, and in four years, we have created over 2 million jobs in the formal sector, including through government programmes such as NABCO (100,000 jobs to unemployed graduates), NEIP, and Planting for Food and Jobs”.
The implementation of the modules for the agency, had been deliberated on months earlier by the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Mr. Baffour-Awuah, who spoken extensively on the modalities of the programme.
“On Youth Employment in 2017, the sustainability of youth Employment agency (YEA), became a concern for government. As a result, the government took some initiatives to transform the agency and strategically position it for growth and sustainability. This included investing in sustainable growth, promoting improved development and job creation and positioning YEA as a facilitator of jobs.
“The agency will continue to set up structures at the regional and district levels to support employment of the youth. The agency is also planning to roll out other initiatives such as, the Akumfi Chalk making program, which is expected to employ over 100 youth. The artisan directory is also expected to recruit over 5,000 beneficiaries”.
