NYEP Safer With NDC - Abuga Pele Declares

The Nation Coordinator of youth Employment and NDC Aspiring Parliamentary Candidate for Chiana-Paga constituency has edge unemployed Ghanaians to bid their time and extend the mandate of the party to keep championing the course of bringing unemployment to the lowest minimum.

Speaking to us in an exclusive, He revealed that he was very satisfied with the strides the government has made as far as the program was concerned.
He noted that when the NDC government took office in 2008, there were so many anomalies that were left unattended to by the erstwhile NPP government. He said that the reason why many of such anomalies were left unattended to was still a misery and raises question as to whether somebody was benefitting from these anomalies.
He revealed that this current administration have had to remove a lot of ghost names and faked document to ensure that the payroll is not over-bloated there by making payment of allowance a huge burden and bring to the fore the issue of sustainability due to the huge financial injection required.
To also ensure that the program is sustained and drastically reduce the rate of youth and graduate unemployment, the program is partnering the private sector and also implementing more programs that give beneficiaries self-employment.
He also revealed that the introduction of the Youth Enterprise for Development Program would help the many innovative young men who lack the requisite funding to kick start their dream project.
He said that at a time when most countries including the more industrialized are struggling to control the ever rising rate of unemployment due to government inability to employment and the face that the private sector is also facing a lot of difficulties due to the global economic downturn, Ghana has done enough to steadily reduce the rate of unemployment.
This he attributed to innovative and responsible governance. “Our government has shown to have the plight of the youth at heart and the extent to which the program has been expanded is a clear attestation to this”
He said the commitment shown by the NDC government towards creating jobs and maximum the potentials of the youth deserves nothing less that appreciation from every well-meaning Ghanaian.
He added that there has never been a point in time in the history of this country that the future of our youth is made so bright. “Ghana is a different country now, the opportunities we have made available within just about our three years in office is unprecedented”
He however showed dissatisfaction on how most of our graduate from all the levels of our education see the NYEP. According to him, many of them consider the program as avenue created solely for drop out and not the elite.
He was quick to add that graduates’ looking down on the program was as a result of the way the previous administration painted it. However the new image given the program by the Atta Mills led NDC is gradually changing that notion that the program was meant more for dropout. “I entreat every Ghanaian to compare the NYEP of yesterday to what we have now” he said.
“It is about time the youth of this country realize that, as much as the onus rest on government to create opportunity for persons from all walks of lives and create a conducive environment for individual to harness their potential and also businesses to flourish, it is the duty of every individual to take advantage of it” he added.
He also admitted that the program though a lot has been done to expand and better the program, there are still a lot more to be done to get the program to its anticipated hight.
Another major transformation that the NYEP has witnessed is the establishment of a Department for Persons with Disability which has recruited more than 600 persons with disability into various sectors of the economy.
The NYEP has also refocused its attention on self-employment modules that provide training and logistic support to beneficiaries to establish and run their own business while some of the youth with little or no education are given the opportunity to access the services of the NYEP without necessarily being on the payroll of government.
The NYEP has, no doubt, become one of the most important public sector institutions in Ghana undertaking massive skills training and job creation in collaboration with private sector service providers.
However, the programme encounters one major challenge? lack of financial resources? which hampers its efforts at expanding the programme to cover a significant proportion of the remaining unemployed youth.
To overcome this challenge, the Office of Mobilization has been set up to help mobilise funds from other sources.