The Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL), a youth centered nongovernmental organization based in the northern region has blamed the woes of Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (NYE or GYEEDA) to the frequent changing of names of the ministry responsible for youth issues in Ghana.
Youth Empowerment for Life says, the creation of NYEP now GYEEDA was misplace and unnecessary by governments.
GYEEDA for some time now has bedevil with a lot issues including financial malfeasance leading to the establishment of ministerial committee to look into its operations as well as restructure it.
YEfL which has been working with youth and disseminating of national youth authority policy documents said; since the creation of the NYEP or GYEEDA, no official from either the agency or its partners has been able give exact figure of the number of youth in Ghana being employed so far.
Given the historical background of NYEP or GYEEDA, the Programs Manager of YEfL,Mr Salifu Mahama said the ministry of Youth and Sports since the first Republic has undergone several changes in its structure and function to reflect the policy directions of the incumbent governments leaving the youth to their fate.
In 1978 the ministry was re-designed for only sports headed by a commissioner and merge with the ministry of education to form the ministry of education, Youth and Sports in 2005.
A year after the merger, youth and sports segment were separated, the sports segment was later combined with education while the youth segment was merged with employment and manpower planning.
In January 2009, the government re-establishes the ministry to represent emerging trend among countries worldwide particularly among common wealth nations.
This, YEFL said has contributed to the huge unemployment rate among the youth which does not correlate to economic development of Ghana over the years.
Speaking at the GDCA media review meeting in Tamale, the Programs Manager of YEfL, Salifu Mahama said NYEP or GYEEDA took over the mandate of National Youth Authority (NYA) which is to develop a strong discipline youth imbued with spirit of nationalism and sense of public service and morality.
The activities of GYEEDA he said could have been carry out b the national youth authority because it has the mandate to champion the issues of youth in Ghana and not any other body.
The creation of this parallel structure to the main stream youth institutions according to Mr Salifu has led GYEEDA to comma waiting for resuscitation.