Operations of YES questioned

The Alliance of Youth Entrepreneurs (AYE) has raised worries over the operations of the Youth Enterprise Support (YES), complaining that none of its members has yet benefitted from the GH¢10 million initiative.

Chairman of the Alliance Alain Gbeasor told TV3 over the week that time is running out for members who have sent in applications to do farming.

“Incidentally, we have been having some discussions with the YES secretariat finding out what is happening and all that,” Mr Gbeasor said.

But Chief Executive Officer of YES Helga Boadi said her secretariat is on course.

She told TV3’s Bright Nana Amfoh that over 2,000 applications have so far been received, but painstaking efforts are being put into validating each application.

“What we are doing now is that we are following up on all the applications received because we have to verify the information that we are receiving, identify these applicants and validate their eligibility. This process is quite elaborate,” Ms Boadi said.

YES was set up by President John Dramani Mahama in fulfillment to his 2012 campaign promise.

It was launched in August last year and it is aimed at helping young entrepreneurs with creative and innovative business ideas and plans achieve full potential.

A start-up fund of Ghc10 million was dedicated to the exercise with successful applicants receiving a maximum of Ghc50,000, part of which will be invested into training and capacity-building.

Ms Boadi pointed out that most of the applicants had falsified their ages to make them eligible.

“We have got people who are 45 pretending to be 20, we have got 50 pretending to be 30,” she said, indicating further that: “It is something you have got to have a lot of time to look into.”

But it appears the process is turning out as frustration to the potential beneficiaries at AYE.

Over 250 of them have, therefore, issued a joint communiqué to YES over communication on their applications.

“We are going to call a stakeholder meeting after this,” announced Mr Gbeasor. “We are going to have YES around.”