NYEP employs 95,000 people- Minister

Accra, June 26, GNA - The National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) has offered employment to 95,000 people as at the end of May this year.

The programme, implemented from October last year, aims at offering employment to unemployed and under employed youth who register with the NYEP.

Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, told Parliament that about 133 disabled had been employed under the programme.

He was responding to a question on the number of disabled persons employed under various packages of the programme.

The Minister said the NYEP runs 10 modules and the choice of participants depended on his or her educational background or interests. He mentioned youth-in agriculture, community policing, health extension services and waste and sanitation management as some of the modules.

"The programme will embark on a sensitization and outreach programme to whip up interest among the disabled to access opportunities available under the programme to improve their well-being.

"District Assemblies and Offices of the Department of Social Welfare will also be encouraged to educate the disabled to regard the programme as viable alternative to seeking alms on the streets of urban towns" he said.

In response to another question, Alhaji Boniface said the Integrated Community Centre For Employable Skills at Tanoso in the Techiman South Constituency would be revived through a massive enrolment drive to assist the youth.