Government to broaden the scope of NYEP

Tamale, Jan. 25, GNA - Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment on Thursday said the 10 modules of job creation under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) would be broaden to create more employment avenues for the youth therefore, efforts should be made to ensure the programme was sustained.

The programme is currently being operated under youth in agriculture, education, sanitation, community protection, Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and community afforestation. Alhaji Boniface announced this when addressing the opening session of an orientation workshop for stakeholders in the implementation of the NYEP Module for Health Extension workers in Tamale.

The participants included officials from the Ministry, Municipal and District Directors of Health, Municipal and District Chief Executives, Coordinators of NYEP and facilitators drawn from the municipality and districts in the Northern Region.

They would be educated on bed making, first aid and bandaging, weighing, nutrition, health promotion and communicable diseases. Alhaji Boniface explained that it was in line with widening the scope of employment that the module for youth in auxiliary nursing had been changed to health extension workers module so that those employed could help educate communities on the preventive aspect of disease control.

He said NYEP would not only create jobs for the youth but in addition, provide them an opportunity to unearth their talents and develop their capacities to enable them contribute their quota to the country's development.

Alhaji Boniface reiterated that NYEP was non-partisan and advised against its politicisation; saying: "Just as other governments initiated programmes which have benefited the entire country and are legacy to those governments so is the New Patriotic Party (NPP) going to leave NYEP as its legacy to the people of Ghana."

Mr Mohammed Amin Adam, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive said NYEP had brought a lot of relief to the youth and contributed significantly to the reduction of poverty in Northern Region.