Roger Abolimbisa(middle) Abdallah Salifu(left) and Patrick Suantah(right)
The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) in the Upper East Region has engaged a total of 4,818 young people under its various modules, according to the Regional Director, Roger Abolimbisa.
Out of the number 2,650 are males, 2,168 females with 31 being persons with disabilities.
The Regional Director disclosed this at a press conference in Bolgatanga.
This year, youth unemployment has taken a centre stage of almost all the political campaigns at the Constituencies, Districts, Regional and National levels, with some political parties, especially those in opposition saying, the country is sitting on time-bomb, considering the unemployment level.
However, the Regional Director of YEA, said government has made some efforts at reducing the youth unemployment by engaging them in the formal and informal sectors of the economy.
According to him, over 4000 youth have been employed in the Upper East Region alone and over 62,000 jobs have been created across the nation and beneficiaries are working hard under their assigned modules.
Mr Abolimbisa said YEA has now a legal backing since its establishment in 2006. He indicated that the Agency is now stable and can operate as a fully-fledged public institution, which means, the tenure of office of all beneficiaries is assured and their working conditions could be reviewed alongside other public institutions.
Currently, the Upper East is benefiting from the Community Health Workers, E-Health Assistants, Community Policing Assistants, Prison Service Assistants, Fire Protection Assistants, Community Education Teaching Assistants, Environmental Protection Assistants, Water Bodies Protection Assistants and Arabic Education modules.
The Deputy Regional Director in charge of Operations, Abdallah Salifu, hinted that the Agency has paid employees allowance up October 2016, except some of them in Bongo, who are yet to receive their salaries due to technical problems.
“We are working hard to ensure that beneficiaries are paid as promptly as possible; when the Directors are paid, they should also be paid. At least that will make them happy.”
FROM: EBO BRUCE-QUANSAH, Bolgatanga