The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) will employ 20,000 youth in Ghana under its newly launched Business and Employment Assistance Programme (BEAP).

Launching BEAP in Sunyani on Monday, December 11, the CEO of YEA, Kofi Agyapong, said under the programme, YEA will provide salary support for new employees recruited by small businesses and medium scale enterprises.

According to a survey by the Ghana Statistical Service in 2020, 46% of firms indicated that they had to reduce employee wages during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. This culminated to reduce standards of living for over 770,000 workers in the country.

Another 41,952 employees were totally laid off as businesses struggled to sustain operations. This development brought devastating hardships to many working Ghanaians and their families. The case of small and medium scale businesses was even worse, as about 16% of these enterprises were permanently shut down.

Touching on this, Mr. Agyapong said “The need for YEA to step in and salvage the growing unemployment situation as a result of the unavailability of funds by the private sector to hire and pay is indeed justified.

"This is why YEA says 'Hire – YEA will pay'. We will pay by supporting set-ups with GHS500 monthly salary support per employee per month whiles the company tops up. Just imagine how much better the lives of these young people would be if they had extra GHS500 addition to their salary,” Mr Agyapong said.

“Overall, some 10,000 SMEs are expected to benefit from this programme with a targeted employment of 20,000 people. One cannot begin to imagine the overwhelming positive ripple effect this will have on families across this blessed nation,” he added.

According to him, in order to sustain this initiative, the YEA will collaborate with relevant government agencies to streamline administrative processes, secure necessary approvals, and align with broader economic policies.

“We will also partner banks and financial institutions to facilitate timely disbursement of salary support to MSMEs,” Mr Agyapong added.

The government has so far released GHC60 million out of GHC120 million for the implementation of the programme by the Youth Employment Agency.

On his part, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia said the initiative demonstrates government's commitment to reducing unemployment.

“Over the next year, an estimated 10,000 medium and small-scale enterprises across various sectors are set to benefit from this programme.

“Additionally, 20,000 Ghanaian youth will benefit from the implementation of this initiative. I am particularly excited about the relieve this initiative will provide to the Ghanaian youth,” Dr. Bawumia said.

YEA’s success story so far

It is also worth noting the tremendous intervention the Youth Employment Agency has made in reducing the rate of unemployment in the country.

In the last one year, the Agency has recruited 15,000 Community Protection Assistants working with the Ghana Police Service, 6,000 Community Health Workers working with the Ghana Health Service, 1,500 Prison Office Assistants working with the Ghana Prisons Service, and 4,000 workers on the Cocoa Rehabilitation Programme.

It has also given financial support to 500 dress makers and 40 large garment companies. 2,000 dressmaking trainees are currently undergoing apprenticeship training with GHC500 monthly support each.

Again, over 30,000 entrepreneurs have been trained by both the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) and the Ghana Library Board, while 2,000 young people have been trained by the Accra Digital Centre in Basic and Advanced IT skills.

Currently, YEA is recruiting another 20,000 young people to be trained in 10 different trade areas including – carpentry, masonry, plumbing, hairdressing, beauty care, auto works, general electricals, steel works, fabrication and painting.