Govt releases more funds for NYEP

THE government has released GH¢2.9 million into the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) from the GH¢5 million revenue realised from the Communications Service Tax (CST).
The amount is the first to be released since the CST came into effect in June this year.
Twenty per cent of revenue accruing from the CST is to be released into the NYEP as part of efforts to streamline payments to those engaged under it.
The Deputy National Co-ordinator of the NYEP with responsibility for Institutional Placement, Mr Ernest Adade, told the Daily Graphic that the funds would be used to finance the modules that were not tied to specific funding sources. He mentioned these as internship, trades and vocation, holiday jobs and youth in ICT.
He expressed confidence that the problems that the programme encountered early this year regarding the late release of allowances had become things of the past since the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment signed a memorandum of understanding with the Agricultural Development Bank under which the latter was managing the financial aspect of the programme to guarantee the monthly release of allowances for the beneficiaries.
“As we speak, all our beneficiaries have received their allowances for October, while those for November will be promptly paid,” he added.
He announced that with effect from November 2008 allowances for all the youth engaged across the modules under the NYEP would be increased by 11 per cent and called on the funding sources to promptly pay up their contributions to enable the NYEP to smoothly adjust to the increment.
Mr Adade said the government was considering expanding the programme to employ the projected 500,000 youth under the youth in ICT, entrepreneurship and the trade and vocation modules which were yet to be officially rolled out.
Already, plans are afoot to introduce modules such as youth in mining and construction, which is primarily targeted at unemployed youth in the mining communities of the country.
In view of the oil discovery in the country, the deputy national co-ordinator declared that funds had been sourced to train 4,000 artisans nation-wide to equip them with the requisite knowledge to engage them in the petrochemical industry.