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About 100,000 youth are expected to be engaged under the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) after it has been restructured, and the new entity has been given legal backing by Parliament.

Last year, the government, under a certificate of emergency, laid before Parliament a bill to restructure GYEEDA and give it legal backing to become a national programme to be implemented by all governments.

The Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, who made this known at a meeting in Tamale yesterday, therefore, appealed to his colleague Members of Parliament (MPs) to not hesitate to pass the GYEEDA bill into law when Parliament reconvened next month.

According to him, the GYEEDA bill, when passed into law, would become a national programme which would help address the current unemployment situation which posed a threat to national security.

Meeting

The meeting, which was attended by members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Employment and Social Welfare and State Enterprises, was to educate regional directors of GYEEDA on the new bill.

Mr Iddrisu, who is also the MP for Tamale South, said the government would implement to the letter all the recommendations made by the committee that reviewed the operations of GYEEDA.

He said that the bill, when passed into law, would ensure that all procurement processes were followed to ensure value for money and also proper oversight and efficiency in the management of the agency.

He said new modules would be introduced to also cater for the employment and entrepreneurial needs of women, especially those in the textiles industry,  as well as persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Mr Iddrisu said the restructured programme would also put in place systems that would help ensure transparency and accountability.

The Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Employment and Social Welfare and State Enterprises, Mr Bukari Joseph Nikpe, who is also MP for Saboba, gave an assurance that the GYEEDA bill would be one of the bills that would be passed into law to address the employment needs of the youth.

The Deputy Ranking Member for the Parliamentary Select Committee on Employment, Social Welfare and State Enterprises, Mr Robert Sarfo-Mensah, who is also the MP for Asunafo North, lauded the bi-partisan approach used in reforming the programme and expressed the hope that there would not be compromises on recruitment under the new programme.

Background

The Kufuor administration instituted the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), but the programme was transformed into GYEEDA under the Mills administration.

It is an initiative set up to lessen the economic pressure on the unemployed youth in Ghana.

The programme is primarily to provide unemployed youth with skills and short-term jobs.

But with the emergence of reports of financial malfeasance in the agency, President John Mahama ordered the management of GYEEDA to freeze all modules under the programme until ongoing reforms had been completed.