Minister of Youth and Sports, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah says over 450,000 jobs were lost as a result of the cancellation of contracts between the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) and its service providers.

Government early this year announced the abrogation of all GYEEDA contracts as a result of the huge public outcry following reports financial impropriety and the lobsided of nature of the contracts.

The contracts cancelled included Rlg Communication's training module, Asongtaba Cottage Industry & Exchange Programme (ACI&EP) and the Better Ghana Management Services Limited, a subsidiary of Jospong Group, the parent company of Zoomlion. 

Contributing to a discussion on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Monday, Mr. Afriyie Ankrah, expressed disappointment that the public has refused to recognise the bold decisions taken by president John Mahama on GYEEDA as a major step in tackling corruption in government.

He said although the president may have his shortfalls, "if there is an instance where he's taken courageous steps, I think that it's important that we commend that particular action whilst we can criticise other things that we think are not going on right".

"Because when we do that it turns to discourage people [that] even if you go through all the efforts and pain and try to do the right thing they bunch everybody together...We [government] even acknowledge that this whole [GYEEDA] came about because of systemic failure," Mr. Ankrah noted.

According to him, the president was caurageous in taking a decisive action, which could cost him and the governing National Democratic Congress in the next elections.

"This is not the first time there has been issues and allegations about corruption in high places but let us look at the actions that have been taken at the highest level; canceling major, major contracts even at political risk [resulting in 450,000 job losses]...so at least something has been done," he stated.