YEA on 'top speed' to enhance youth employment and development

Management of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) led by lawyer Justin Kodua Frimpong has turned agency into an attractive institution over few years of his tenure.

Youth Employment Agency is one of the essential social intervention programmes initiated by the erstwhile Kufour government.

The agency under the 8-year regime of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) nearly crippled but has been revived to the level where stakeholders would regain confidence in associating with the agency by the current administration and new management of the YEA.

For the first time of its inception, the agency is embarking on payment of exit packages to beneficiaries in a manner not done before.

About twenty five thousand (25000) beneficiaries have successfully received their exit funds to cushion them.

The process is still ongoing and will be completed soon. The only attempt to pay exit funds previously was around 2014 which was woefully unsuccessful.

An investigation into the activities of the agency reveals that the lawyer Kodua and his team are saving Ghana huge sums of money which ordinarily would have been lost.

This saving comes on the heels of a headcount exercise done by management to ensure value for money and insist that deserving beneficiaries are paid.

So far, the rigorous headcount exercise has enabled the Agency to identify and delete about twenty thousand (20000) "ghost beneficiaries" from their payroll.

It has also been established that the era of mass arrears is now a thing of the past.

Allowances are paid across board for every month. The individual beneficiaries with arrears stem from issues pertaining to non-submission of time sheets, wrong e-zwich numbers and wrong phone numbers among others.

According to the Director of Communications, Mr. Kwasi Afriyie, management is taking steps to vet and rectify all claims of arrears.

Affected Beneficiaries are required to correct anomalies and submit their time sheets to their districts or report to the Beneficiary Management Unit (BMU) for verification and submit copies of their time sheets for vetting and payment.

Management also added the Agency is now on a top speed with their agenda to enhance youth employment and development.

They hope that the Job Center Project, Artisan Directory and Regional Flagship programmes to be introduced early next year will be the game changer for the youth in the country.

In a short video, Mr. Kodua expressed his profound gratitude to the sector Minister Ignatius Baffour Awuah, Board Chairman Sammy Awuku, the board, management and the entire staff for the commitment and support in the year 2018.

He wished all Ghanaians, especially the Youth a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

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