YEA Will Expand Its Modules To Engage More Youth- Deputy CEO

The Deputy Chief Executive Officer, CEO, in charge of operations of the Youth Employment Agency, YEA, Luke Atarizona, has announced the agency is likely to expand its modules to engage the teeming unemployed youth in the country.

The agency has already rolled out eight modules, which have employed nearly 120,000 young graduates from the Senior High Schools and tertiary institutions in the country. Some of these modules include health, education security, agriculture, paid internship, coastal sanitation, among others.

Mr. Atarizona said the likely expansion was in line with government's resolve to empowering the youth to fulfill their dreams of becoming productive people to lead happier lives.

He, however, expressed optimism the youth who were fortunate to get enrolled into the agency, would undoubtedly work diligently and industriously to advance the interests of their respective communities and Ghana as a whole.

Mr. Atarizona disclosed this at a media encounter in Bolgatanga of the Upper East Region.

He used the occasion to deny allegations being peddled by a cross-section of the public that entry into the agency was swayed by partisan politics.

He noted the information being circulated in every nook and cranny that recruitment in the YEA was restricted to only sympathizers of the ruling National Democratic Congress, NDC, was a flawed allegation and asked the public to disregard and treat it with the contempt it warranted.

" People accuse us of doing partisan politics. Recently, some people in the opposition NPP, including Nana Akomea are talking about how the agency is discriminating against some regions that are not the strongholds of the NDC. I want to put it on record that recruitment in the YEA is open to every Ghanaian within the ages of 18 to 35, irrespective of one political affiliation.
"Ashanti Region which is the stronghold of the NPP is dominating in virtually all the modules. So, where lies the fact that it is discriminating against some regions?", he asked.

Mr. Atarizona also reprimanded staff of the YEA, including the District, Municipal and Metropolitan Coordinators to be wary with their incongruous attitudes that were inimical to the progress of the agency.

He said the corruption scandal that rocked YEA, formerly Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development, GYEEDA, was still fresh in the memory of Ghanaians and charged the coordinators to desist any acts that could make the image of the agency suffer another 'disrepute'.

Mr. Atarizona who received a series of complaints regarding the misbehaviour being exhibited against beneficiaries by some District Coordinators in the Upper East Region, directed the Regional Director of the YEA to launch a landmark probe into the coordinators' misdemeanour and bring them to book if found liable.