Manpower ministry signs MoU with ADB– To manage NYEP accounts...Daily Graphic (back page)..Tuesday June 17/08

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe Duho

THE Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment (MMYE) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) for the latter to provide financial management services to the accounts of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
In effect, the bank, which will be paid a management fee by the ministry, is to open accounts for all employees of the NYEP and effect the payment of monthly allowances which ranged from GH¢50 to GH¢210 to a total of 70,000 people who are currently employed under the programme to ensure its smooth operation.
The ADB, as part of the MoU, will also effect the payment of allowances to the NYEP personnel in times of delay of money from the government, and the ministry, as part of its commitment towards the MoU, has paid an initial deposit of GH¢6 million to the ADB.
The sector minister, Nana Akomea, who initialled on behalf of the ministry, said the move had become necessary as the NYEP, which otherwise was a laudable idea, was facing financial constraints, thereby creating situations where employees under the programme could work for about three to four months before they were paid.
He said so far the programme had employed 108,000 young people across the country of which he said 38,000 were currently working on their own mostly in the agriculture sector.
Nana Akomea explained that the ADB, as managers of the NYEP accounts, would help streamline the management of the payment of allowances for the programme, which hitherto, he said, was being done by the ministry.
The Managing Director of ADB, Mr Yaw Opoku Atuahene, who signed on behalf of the bank, assured the minister of the bank’s commitment to ensure that the programme worked effectively.
He said since the programme was employing the youth on temporary basis, the ADB would take the opportunity to introduce facilities that would entice the youth to take up permanent jobs especially under its Youth in Agriculture project.
The NYEP National Co-ordinator, Mr Leo Kabah Aloue, said his outfit, through the district co-ordinators, was going to monitor the work of the personnel monthly and furnish the ADB with them to effect payments to ensure that they work for their pay and also to eliminate 'ghost names' whenever possible.
The NYEP was introduced by the government two years ago and it sources its funding from the GETFund, National Health Insurance Scheme, Ghana Road Fund, District Assemblies Common Fund and the HIPC Fund.