Chief appeals to government: Absorb Nzema Maanle Training Institute

Nana Ngotobia Cato I, Chief of Bawia in the Western Region has appealed to government to absorb the Nzema Maanle Youth Leadership and Skills Training Institute and save it from eminent collapse.

He said the only technical institute in the area is facing infrastructural, financial and staffing challenges.

Nana Cato, who was also a member of the defunct Board of Directors of the Institute, made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at his palace at the weekend.

He said the Institute was established by an Italian non-governmental organisation, Cooperation for Development of Emerging Countries (COSPEC) in the early 2000, towards strengthening relationship existing between Peccioli in Italy and Nzema East and Jomoro District Assemblies in Ghana.

Nana Cato said after a few years in operation, the NGO handed over the Institute to the National Youth Authority and left the three technical masters on contract at the Institute, the security man and the secretary to the principal of school to their fate.

He said since then, all efforts to have these staff either fully employed or absorbed under the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneur Development Agency (GYEEDA) programme for the Institute considering their role at the place has become a fiasco.

Nana Cato said the National Youth Authority is neither posting teaching staff nor improving the infrastructure at the Institute thus affecting students and discouraging parents from enrolling their wards at the Institute.

He said had it not been the National Service Personnel and the three technical masters who are holding the fort, the facility would have been closed down saying for barely three years none of the workers have received any payment whatsoever from neither the National Youth Authority nor the two district assemblies.

He said the facility had trained some youth in the area who are furthering their education or contributing to the development of the nation and therefore the Institute needed to be sustained in the system so far as oil and gas projects are concern in the area.

The Principal of the Institute, Mr Charles Koduah, who confirmed the story to the GNA said, proceeds from the school’s workshop is too scanty to support any remuneration to the technical masters, the security man and the personal secretary from time to time.

Mr Sylvester Daddieh, the Jomoro District Chief Executive said he was in negotiation with the District Education Directorate for the employment of the five persons.