Gov’t expunges 20,000 ghost names from YEA payroll

20,000 ghost names have been expunged from the payroll of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) over the past three years.

An audit conducted by YEA further revealed that the presence of the ghost names cost the taxpayer GHS82.5 million annually.

The YEA is mandated by law to coordinate, facilitate and supervise employment for the youth and related matters in the country.

Speaking at the maiden nation-building updates in Accra, Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah commended the Agency for conducting the audit.

“One of the most significant things the Youth Employment Agency has done is, just by doing due diligence, to save us about GHS82. 5 million a year for the last three and half years. For all the numbers that they were claimed to have been on the Youth Employment Programme, by doing an audit, about 20,000 ghosts have been exorcised from that roll and that translates to about GHS82 million a year.”

The Agency, he explained, was established to provide employment opportunities for the youth and alleviate poverty across the country.

The Agency had refocused its mission to be more beneficial to youth development, currently operating 14 modules with 143,953 youth engaged nationwide, Mr Frimpong said.

Under its ‘Youth in Elite Sports,’ Mr Frimpong said 1,000 young professional footballers were being paid GHc500 monthly stipends by the Agency to help develop their talents.

About 5,000 youth had also received entrepreneurial skills and provided with start-up kits and capital to be self-reliant.

The support offered by the YEA had gone a long way to reduce youth unemployment from 18 to 13 per cent within the period.

The Nation Building Updates is a weekly event designed by the Government to provide stakeholders and Ghanaians with detailed updates on key government interventions.

The event, held at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, was on the theme: “Leadership that delivers for the Youth”.

Some of the agencies that featured in the maiden event were the National Youth Authority (NYA), Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo), National Board for Small Scale Industries, National Service Scheme (NSS), and National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP).

The participating agencies used the platform to render account of their stewardship and report on the various pro-youth social interventions being undertaken by the Government.

These include the CAPBUSS under the NBSSI, Job Centres of the YEA, the Presidential Pitch and the Green House project of the NEIP, digitisation processes at the NSS, progression into permanent jobs under the NaBCo, and digital marketing and capacity building under the NYA.