The Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Kofi Baah Agyepong has told Ghanaians that president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his government are very sensitive to the plight of Ghanaians in the face of global economic crises, and bent on reducing the pressure and burden of Ghanaians through a further creation of jobs, skills acquisitions and entrepreneurial development of the youth.
According to the Chief Executive, this is evident in the creation of over 17,000 jobs in just over the last four months by the Youth Employment Agency through its Community Health Worker Programme (CHWS), Prisons Office Assistants, Community Protection Assistants, the YEA Jobcentre and partnerships with the private sector.
Mr. Agyepong made the revelation when he was addressing a passing-out parade of 1,064 of the second batch of CPAs beneficiaries drawn from the Bono, Ashanti, Bono East, Ahafo, and the Western North Region.
This represented a total of 5,400 beneficiaries, who passed out at the various Police Training Schools in the country.
In his speech, the CEO averred that Akufo-Addo’s government aligns with Ghanaians and agrees that we are not in normal times and charged YEA and other agencies to refocus on creating employment and improving conditions of service for employees.
According to him, the agency has already created over 17000 jobs since his assumption as CEO and is poised to create thousands of more jobs before the close of 2023.
Apart from rolling out the traditional modules, allowances of beneficiaries have now been increased to 500 cedis. There is also a deepened partnership with the diplomatic community and private sector to create more private sector-led jobs.
Mr. Agyepong also told the gathering that, YEA’s new agenda also creates a platform for people in the technical and artisan sectors with an oncoming partnership with NEIP, NVTI, GEA, etc.
To the beneficiaries under the Community Protection Assistants CPAs module, the CEO advised them not to compromise on their professional integrity in the course of discharging their duties in the communities.
He added that the Agency would not hesitate to endorse sanctions to weed out any CPA personnel by the GPS for infractions in the rules of their engagement.
Mr. Kofi Agyepong explained that such caution was against the background of assurance by the GPS to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (M.O.U) with the Agency to give consideration and priority to CPA personnel in future recruitment into the mainstream service.
He explained that the Agency had taken the necessary steps to clear all outstanding arrears owed to beneficiaries to disburse their minds of engaging in malfeasance.
He assured that the NPP government under the leadership of His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had made strenuous efforts in spite of the economic turbulence to release funds timeously to meet the monthly stipends of the beneficiaries.
The passing-out ceremony was concurrently held in Pwalugu Police Training School led by the Deputy CEO in charge of Operations, Alhaji Ibrahim Bashiru, in Accra by Director Technical Service Chris Arthur, Eastern Region by the Regional Director, Jerry Adu Poku.