Leadership of the national youth authority begins working tours to selected youth resource centers

The Chairperson, CEO, Members of the Board and some selected staff of the National Youth Authority have begun a familiarization tour to some Youth Resource Centers of Excellence that the Authority is currently constructing across the nation, particularly in the ten (10) former regions of the country to assess levels of work and also familiarize themselves with ongoing happenings.

The tour which commenced on Wednesday, 29th April 2020, saw the team stop firstly at the Volta Regional Youth Resource Center at Ho, the Regional Capital.

Mr. Yao Semordey, Regional Director of NYA welcomed the team and thanked the team for the visit.

Following the inspection of facilities at the center and addressing the media, CEO Mr. Sylvester Tetteh did not mince words at expressing his displeasure with delays in the progress of work. In his words, there hadn’t been any “significant change” since he last visited and said monies released to the contractor does not tally with work done.

He pointed out breaches in the contract signed with the contractor of the project and said the Authority is responsible for the development of the youth as well as accountable to them hence “we cannot fail them and shall do all in our power, to protect the public purse” Mr. Tetteh emphasized.

Hon. Francisca Oteng Mensah (MP) and Chairperson of the NYA Board said the Youth Resource Centers are flagship programmes of the government and was intended to be concluded by the close of this year with the first phase anticipated to be concluded and handed over to government by June this year. She said work generally was not encouraging and that the Board would definitely have to meet and take some decisions.

She was emphatic that timelines would be adhered to and assured the youth that the project will definitely be concluded on schedule.

Mr. Joshua Makudu, a member of NYA’s governing board reechoed the Chairperson’s sentiments and said variations made to the original plan was disappointing since there was still no provisions made for PWDs especially regarding access to the stands.

The team then proceeded to inspect rehabilitation works currently ongoing at the Ho Municipal Office of the Secretariat where the team led by the CEO also met and interacted with young volunteers recruited to aid in disseminating information in the community on adopting good health habits in a bid to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Eastern Regional Youth Resource Center at Koforidua, the CEO was again appalled by the degree of work accomplished and again stated that nothing new had taken place there since his last visit in January. He called for a third opinion in investigating activities at the site since government had never reneged for once in payments to contractors working on the projects.

Hon. Oteng Mensah then enquired about daily and weekly reports of progress of work from the representative of the consultant of the project which was unavailable.

The team is scheduled to visit Nyinahin in the Ashanti Region, Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Bono Region and Dunkwa-On-Offin in the Central Region in subsequent days.

Edwin A. Amponsah

Head of Public Relations

National Youth Authority