More unemployed continue to besiege registration centres

Hundreds of people continue to besiege several centres in the Brong Ahafo Region in the on-going registration of unemployed and under-employed.

The rush, coupled with the cumbersome nature of the exercise has brought intense pressure on registration assistants, resulting sometimes in arguments between the officials and impatient members of the public.

Mr Martin Opoku, Regional Statistician and co-ordinator of the exercise and Mr Richard Obeng, Regional Labour Officer, on Wednesday toured centres in the Tano, Asutifi and Asunafo districts.

Mr Bernard Oduro, an official at a centre in Bechem complained that they have no time even for meals and the people even follow them to their homes in the night to be registered. He said about 2,000 people have so far been registered in the three centres in the district since the exercise begun this month.

At Kenyasi Number One, Mr Ben Blankson, Asutifi District Registration Officer, said about 1,545 unemployed people have been registered in the district. He complained about the non-payment of part of their allowances, as promised them.

At Goaso, Mr Randolph Wilson, Asunafo District Registration Officer, said about 1,489 people have been registered. Meanwhile, 40,000 additional registration forms, which were received in the region on Tuesday, have been distributed to the various registration centres.

In another development, the Sunyani District Assembly has decided to train four more assistants to speed up the exercise due to the growing number of unemployed at registration centres.

Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, District Chief Executive, said on Thursday that some of the unemployed had been going to the centres as early as 1 A.M. and yet do not get registered.

He said the assembly would cater for the four officials from its resources. Mr Augustine Peprah, an official at one of the centres at Sunyani complained about the intense pressure on them and false information provided by some of the people.