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The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Lawyer Justin Kodua Frimpong has promised the people of the Western North Region more jobs this year and beyond.

According to him, the jobs will dominantly be in the areas of agriculture, craft and entrepreneurship.

He gave the assurance at the commissioning of an ultra-modern office complex in the Western North Region to facilitate its operations.

The facility comes with a job centre, complaint unit, offices, modules support office, among others.

The office complex was born out of the need to have a fully functional secretariat that will see to the creation, facilitation and the development of jobs and job opportunities tailored to the needs of the people in the region.

It also serves the government’s vision of evenly spreading infrastructural development across the country, especially in the newly created regions.

Lawyer Kodua Frimpong explained that YEA is the fulcrum of the President’s ‘One Million Jobs’ agenda – and as the CEO, he would make sure that this vision is fully realised through an effective collaboration with institutions like the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP), Ghana Enterprises Agency, Forestry Commission, National Youth Authority and the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs).

“We are already in partnership with NEIP, Ghana Health Service, GEA (formerly NBSSI), Forestry Commission and even private partners that yielded in close to 150,000 jobs over the past four years,” he stated.

He commended President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for spearheading the creation of six new regions, including the Western North Region.

The new regions came with new administrative offices, hence the construction of the YEA office in the Western North Region to facilitate its work, he said.

He stated that the Agency, since 2017, had added four modules to its existing modules to enhance the provision of employment avenues for Ghanaians, especially the youth.

"The sector minister and YEA management have put in place a good number of measures in providing jobs for the teeming youth,” he disclosed.

Mr Kodua Frimpong said the YEA Job Centre is to provide adequate data on job avenues that are readily available, and he urged the youth to take advantage of it.

With the setting up of this new ultra-modern office, he hinted that particular focus would be set on the Western North Region in the coming years to create thousands of jobs to fit the purpose of the structure and to gain value for the amount of money expended on the construction.

The YEA CEO stated that the Agency would maximise the efforts of its Artisan Directory in the region to train young men and women to have professional craftsmen and women and help them to obtain jobs or create their own.

In addition, he said YEA would also bring artisans in the region on to a single platform to serve as an easy source for clients and to also boost the market size of participating artisans.

According to Mr Kodua Frimpong, agriculture which thrives in the region is an area of interest to the YEA, and funds and training are being made available for potential beneficiaries in the coming months.

He stated that he would love to see farmers who mechanise and receive professional training and practices to double or quadruple their yields in the coming farming seasons.

The Board Chairperson of the YEA, Mrs Anita Kusi Boateng, lauded the Agency for putting up the edifice within a short time and said it would help coordinate activities in the region.

She said the YEA does not discriminate in providing employment opportunities for the youth regardless of their qualification.

She urged both staff and all stakeholders to be motivated by the structure alone to give off their best in using the YEA Job Centre, Work Abroad, Artisan Directory, fagship projects and the entrepreneurship support to find decent jobs for the people of the region.

She emphasised the significance of the new policy initiatives and the traditional modules to the YEA Governing Board and the will to create the highest possible number of jobs for the youth of Ghana.

Mrs Boateng hinted of more programmes and modules to be rolled out in the short term, including the ‘Community Health Worker’ programme.

Stakeholders in the region, including the Regional Coordinating Director who represented the Regional Minister, MDCEs, chiefs, NGOs other government agencies took their turns and commend the YEA Governing Board for this infrastructural development and the accompanying innovative policies that will obviously see to the massive reduction of unemployment in the region.

They all promised to work together with the YEA Regional Secretariat to achieve the President’s primary focus of job creation.

The Wiawso Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Louis Owusu-Agyapong, on behalf of all the municipal and district chief executives in the region, said the creation of the region was yielding results and pledged their unflinching support to the Agency.

The Chief Director, Western North Regional Coordinating Council, Mr Sampson Amoako Kwarteng, on behalf of the Regional Minister, said the region had benefitted from a good number of infrastructural development.

These include the construction of the Western North Regional Education office at Bibiani, Regional Health Directorate at Bodi, the Food and Agriculture office at Juaboso and the Feeder Roads office complex at Enchi, with some others at various stages of completion.