Youth Ministry Faces Funding Gaps
By Esther Korantemaa Offei
The Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment, George Opare Addo, has disclosed that the ministry continues to face significant funding challenges despite implementing several programmes aimed at tackling youth unemployment across the country.
According to the minister, a substantial portion of the ministry’s budget is committed to paying allowances for National Service personnel and supporting beneficiaries under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), placing pressure on available resources for other flagship initiatives.
He explained that although the Youth Employment Agency is expected to receive 80 per cent of the Communication Service Tax, it currently receives a little over 40 per cent, limiting its ability to expand employment opportunities.
“National Service is big because of the allowances we pay to beneficiaries, and that is all under this amount,” he said.
Mr. Opare Addo noted that the YEA currently has between 80,000 and 90,000 beneficiaries, with each receiving a minimum monthly allowance of about GH¢1,000.
“When you put all that together and look at the various programmes they implement, currently under the YEA, we have almost 80,000 to 90,000 beneficiaries, and the minimum we pay each beneficiary is about GH¢1,000,” he stated.
The minister admitted that funding remains inadequate for some of the government’s key youth initiatives, including the Adwumawura programme.
“For the key government programmes, we still have budget shortfalls. For instance, the Adwumawura programme, if we want to go by what we intend to do and achieve, we’ll still need more money,” he said.
Mr. Opare Addo attributed some of the financial constraints to the country’s economic challenges and the high rate of youth unemployment, stressing that the ministry is making the best use of the resources available.
He revealed that close to 11,000 young people were trained under the Adwumawura programme last year, while nearly 14,000 others benefited from the National Apprenticeship Programme. He added that many of the trainees who qualified received startup capital to establish their own businesses.
“Our goal is to move the Ghanaian youth from being a job seeker into becoming an employer,” the minister said, adding that the ministry remains committed to building an ecosystem that promotes entrepreneurship and sustainable employment.
