Government has no intention of dismissing NYEP workers

Gomoa Afransi ,(C/R) Sept 2, GNA - The government has no intention to sack workers under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe, Central Regional Minister has said. In a speech read on her behalf by Mr Jacob Obeng-Forson, Agona West Municipal Chief Executive, at the inauguration of an eight-member District Employment Taskforce for Gomoa East at Afransi, in the Central Region, she dismissed rumours about pending lay offs. She said the government was rather going to employ an additional 100,000 workers under the National Youth Employment Programme in the areas of health, education, sanitation, community policing and others areas over the years.

According to the Madam Benyiwa-Doe, the Government is in the process of paying the SSNIT contributions to workers under programme to enable them to have pension benefits.

Additionally, she said, the government would address all the lapses which had confronted the NYEP to make it more attractive. The Regional Minister urged politicians to stop politicizing the NYEP by inciting the people against the Government. She charged the taskforce members to be proactive in their work to create more jobs for the unemployed youth in the newly created Gomoa East District to reduce poverty.

Mr Patrice Sowah, National Project Officer of ILO, urged the taskforce to ensure that model and decent employment were provided to the unemployed.

He expressed concern that teenagers, especially girls as young as 13, were indulging in sexual immorality and urged the district assembly, traditional rulers and religious bodies to embark on programmes to educate them against HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy. He noted that the failure of about 50 percent candidates at the recent Basic Education Certificate Examination impact negatively on national development.

The Project Officer urged Ghanaians to stop doing politics with education in the country because it holds the key to the poverty reduction and human development.

Mr Prince Abbam, Presiding Member of the Gomoa East District Assembly, assured the ILO officials of the assembly's preparedness to ensure that the taskforce worked to its perfection. He expressed the hope that the programme would assist the people especially the youth to establish their own businesses instead of migrating to urban towns and cities in search of non existing jobs.