YEA remains committed to its mandate - CEO

The Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Mr. Kofi Baah Agyepong, has said the Agency remains committed to its mandate of creating and facilitating jobs for the youth of Ghana.

To that end, he assured that the government and for that matter the Agency would work assiduously to ensure as many youth as possible, irrespective of their background, develop appropriate employable skills that that would enable them to contribute their quota to the economy in diverse ways.

Quoting the famous statement by His Excellency the President during the COVID-19 Weekly broadcast to the nation to the effect that “We know how to bring the economy back to life. What we do not know is how to bring the people back to life”, he explained.

He added that as the economy was bouncing back steadily despite the external shocks, the government needed to partner with the private sector to speed up the process and it was that motivation that led to the collaboration with the insurance industry players to train and employ those young ones into the industry.

The CEO made these remarks at the official launch of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and National insurance Commission (NIC) collaboration on Tuesday 2nd May 2023 in Accra to train an estimated six thousand 6,000 youth nationwide as Insurance Agents for the industry.

The launch was held on the theme “Building a Sustainable Future; Creating opportunities for the youth through Insurance.”

According to him, investing in the youth today was the smartest move to secure the country’s future and the YEA remain committed to providing the necessary platform to what would lead to job creation and equip the youth to become change agents.

He disclosed that the Agency in line with its mandate and vision has created over twenty-Five Thousand (25,000) direct jobs backed by verifiable date and at least 60,000 indirect jobs in the past nine months.

Giving the breakdown, he explained that the YEA over the past year trained and deployed 6,000 Community Health Workers CHWs across the health centres and CHPS Compounds in the country, 15,000 Community Protection Assistants CPAs had been engaged by the Ghana Police Service (GPS) 500 Prisons Office Assistants POAs, 800 Artisans registered and ongoing recruitment of 5,000 workers for the Cocoa sector in the Western region and the current recruitment of an estimated 6,000 youth as Insurance Agents nationwide to serve in various insurance companies across the country.

He encouraged the trainees to take the training seriously to live up to expectation at the various companies they would be posted.

The CEO expressed no doubt about the ability of the Ghanaian to deliver saying that the youth have the energy, knowledge and creativity to tackle some of the pressing problems in this time of economic recovery.

According to him “It is for this reason that the YEA has started partnership with the private sector as the engine of growth to facilitate jobs for the youth of the country.

He expressed the hope that this partnership with the NIC to train the youth and facilitate their deployment to insurance companies would be sustained in order to ensure that as many qualified Insurance Agents operated in the industry.

Mrs. Anita Kusi Boateng Board Chair of YEA in her remarks called for more innovative ideas to address the challenges of unemployment among the youth.

She explained the need to think outside the box to explore and exploit the opportunities available to create the needed jobs for the youth.

She urged the media to carry the message of employment creation among the youth and minimize the negative stories on the social media platforms.

Hon. BrIght Wireko Brobbey Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations lauded the Agency for living up to its mandate and prayed and hoped that the collaboration would be fruitful.

He said the YEA was currently the institution facilitating employment for the youth through a collaboration with the private sector and craved the indulgence of the Insurance companies to employ the trainees once they are certified to work.

The Director of Ghana Insurance College (GIC) noted that the Insurance sector of the economy was an avenue for employment opportunities among the unemployed youth of Ghana.

He however, regretted that many a Ghanaian youth dread venturing into that sector because of the negative perception created about the job of the agents.

According to him, job avenues exist in the industry but only attracts 44% coverage by the youth with the remaining 56 percent yet to be filled.