The President, H.E John Agyekum Kuffuor, on October 3, 2006, officially launched the National Youth in Employment Programme at the Kawukudi Park, near Nima in Accra. The programme is geared towards empowering the youth with the technical know-how, industrial skills, appropriate work ethics, and individual initiative to enhance their productivity. Employment opportunities will be provided in the areas of waste and sanitation, agric-business, education, community protection, rural health, internship, trade, vocation, and I.C.T. Although the programme sounds laudable, some genuine fears hang around the viability of the project, as to whether it will not just be a storm in a tea cup, as it was in some times past. Are the unemployed youth really going to see their “cups half full rather than half empty”?

The above pessimism stems from the backdrop of the fact that this much touted programme is not new to Ghanaians, although the name sounds so. Talk about PAMSCAD, SAP, ERP, etc. what became of them? How different is the National Youth Employment Programme and how do we convince the many genuinely expectant youth as well as the pull-him-down pessimists of its sustainability? It is gratifying to note that the programme, although just launched to create about 155,319 employment avenues, has already began in earnest. About 33,945 people have already been employed under the programme. Manuals for the smooth implementation of the programme have already been made available to DCEs and District Employment Co-ordinators.

It is again worth noting that enough preparatory works have been undertaken before its commencement. The Skills Training and Employment Placement (STEP) Programme, which was aimed at providing the youth with the requisite employable skills, was a sequel to this initiative. Again, it would be recalled that as part preparations for this exercise, the government, in 2001, undertook a national census of unemployed youth during which about 957,000 people registered. About 27,000 people have since undergone training in fields such as masonry, carpentry, batik tye and dye making, etc.

Perhaps the most significant indicator of the sustainability of the Youth in Employment Programme is the source of funding, which, unlike previous programmes like PAMSCAD, SAP, etc, is coming from the consolidated fund. Significantly, one trillion cedis has already been voted for the programme. There is no donor component for somebody to argue that it will not affect targeted areas simply because we shall be dictated to on how and where to utilise the money.

Kudos to President Kuffuor and his government for a sustainable ray of hope for the country’s teeming youth!!!

Let me, however, sound a note of caution! Government has taken the right step of acting as a catalyst. However, the private sector, identified by this government as the engine of growth, should advisedly be brought on board immediately. This is because the benefit of history (viz SAP, PAMSCAD ERP) has shown that government alone cannot sustain it. After the internships and the like, the private sector should be invited to employ some of the trainees without any reservations that they did not in any way contribute towards the cost of training. After all, this option is better than the youth sitting at home with the acquired skills. Also, it will avoid the swelling up of the country’s recurrent expenditure, which may save us undue pressure from the multi-donor agencies to cut down on recurrent expenditure which lead to redeployment, a once famous name I shiver to hear again.

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