GYEEDA�S Untold Success Story

The adage is never despise little beginnings and so deep is the popular saying that a journey of a thousand mile begins with a step. In the year 1999, when he invested his first $200,000 into an internet caf� business in Accra, little did the then 25 year old Roland Agambire know that 13 years later, his name will be equated with social justice and equity. A firm believer in risk taking, Agambire had prepared himself to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the newly heralded era of the dotcom but not long after, he had to rethink because the fortunes of internet cafes had dwindled. Many would have seen that as a misfortune but not Agambire who took it as an opportunity to and decided to venture into another risky area, going on to set up an outlet to train young people in the area of mobile phone and computer repairs. At this he had envisioned an enormous opportunity to be created as a result of the soon-to-be proliferation of mobile phones. For him, it was an opportunity to make some money but placing the socio-economically outcast at the center. It is significant to point out that this was long before government came to the realisation that the youth unemployment statistics were not only escalating but had become a security issue. That is why Roagam Links came about. He had a number of centers established training a large number of youth. So committed and sincere was his intervention that then President Kufuor led government to secure a MASLOC loan of 1.2 million cedis for his business. Upon expiration of that facility, Agambire paid back a total amount of 1.8 million cedis including interest. The government through EDAIF is said to have offered some of his companies like Asongtaba Cottage and Cratpro some 500,000 cedis at a 12% interest rate and was also paid back later with interest. The credit worthiness of his companies are evident in the prompt manner he pays back loans offered him. Indeed under the NDC administration, he has contracted a number of facilities including a 1.7 million cedi interest free loan which has since been paid back to government. So when in 2006 the NPP government took a decision to establish the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), one of the modules it decided to focus on was Youth �In-ICT and because Roland Agambire�s Roagam Links which later became Rlg Communications Ltd was already implementing the module, government did not have a choice than to fall on him to nationalise it to benefit a lot more young people, a clear indication that government at that time had endorsed Agambire�s initiatives on skilling and tooling the youth to curb unemployment. The successive NDC government choose to follow the path the NPP had chattered. It is therefore not surprising that one of the good things the recent Ministerial Impact Assessment and Review Committee into the operations of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) succeeded in doing was to highlight significantly, the very importance and social impact of the both the entire scheme as well as some of the modules it runs. Rather sadly however, social commentaries, critiques and media exposes have failed to project such significant achievements. For example, the 161-page report makes cogent reference to face-to-face encounters with some beneficiaries who did not hesitate to inform the committee how beneficial their training and subsequent tooling and setting up has helped them socio-economically. In one of the pages, the report quotes one George Nyarko, a beneficiary of the Youth-in-ICT Module being run by Rlg Communications Group Ltd. as saying �I do not depend on anybody for my daily bread and I have paid for my accommodation 2 years in advance @ GHS35/month�. The committee observed that even though Rlg provides training manuals and text books for the training, the lack of personal ICT textbooks for private studies ought to change. The committee observed also that so essential is the module that it offers skills for mobile phone hardware repairs, provides working tools for beneficiaries and provides income to cater for beneficiary�s family upon successful completion of the 6 months training. It was however suggested that because currently computer hardware has been added to the training, the course duration ought to be extended. The committee also lauded the existence of a detailed exit plan in that particular module, a practice it urges other service providers to emulate. �My income is helping me cater for my family including 3 kids�, John Paul Ahiagbor, another ICT Module beneficiary is captured in the report as saying. The report recommends that case studies of successful beneficiaries should be captured, highlighted and used to encourage more youth to work harder by both the Service Provider and GYEEDA.