The Chief Executive Officer [CEO) of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), Kofi Agyapong, has noted with great concern the increasing rate of youth unemployment in the country.
He averred that, the canker is a terrible situation which needs concerted efforts by government and stakeholders to find lasting solution so as to save situations.
In view of this, the YEA he said is launching the training and employment of Insurance Agents, which is a collaboration between the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and the National Insurance Commission (NIC).
Speaking at the launch of the Insurance Agents, Kofi Agyapong enumerated that a “country whose youth are idle become vulnerable to social vices such as armed robbery, prostitution, drug trafficking among many others.”
According to him, the thoughts of these is what drives YEA to continuously find ways to create jobs for the youth.
He mentioned that investing in the youth today, is the smartest move to secure the country’s future.
The YEA, he noted, remains committed to providing the necessary platform that will lead to job creation and to equip the youth to become change agents.
He revealed that, some efforts have been made and successes chalked as regards the work if YEA adding that, “In line with its mandate, the government through the YEA alone has created almost 25,ooo direct jobs and over 60,000 indirect jobs in the last nine months. These are direct jobs backed by verifiable data. Data is data. We have the capacity to create more jobs and we will make it possible for the youth to enjoy a better Ghana.”
He also said that, in spite of the economic challenges facing the country as a result of the pandemic, global economic crisis amidst the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, leading to high inflation across the world, the NPP government has prioritized youth employment because it believes in the youth as the future of this nation.
He said “We have vigorously embarked on various projects that have benefitted the youth of this country, especially during the tenure of President Nana Akufo-Addo.”
He spoke about the recruitment of 6,000 Community Health Workers, recruitment of 15,000 Community Protection Assistants, recruitment of 500 Prisons Service Assistants, recruitment of 800 artisans for the INZAG Project, ongoing recruitment of about 5,000 farm workers for the Cocobod/Afarinick Cocoa Plant Treatment Programme and newly certified insurance agents.
“Today, we are here to launch what we may call “Youth in Insurance”. This project seeks to train and employ at least 6,000 youth to serve in various capacities with insurance companies across the country. This shows the government’s commitment to reducing unemployment among the youth in Ghana.”
He encouraged the trainees to take their training seriously and to live up to expectation at the various insurance companies that they would be posted to.
