A call has been made on President Akufo-Addo to impress upon the management of the newly established initiative, National Entrepreneurship and Innovative Plan (NEIP) to ensure that the names of all the beneficiaries and their expenses have been made public periodically in order to enhance transparency, probity and accountability.
Leading the crusade for President Akufo-Addo to demand a periodic publication of the expenditures on the various beneficiaries of NEIP is the President of the Foundation for Generational Thinkers (FOGET), Mr. Prosper Afetsi who stated that his call on the President has become a matter of importance.
This, according to him, will serve as a viable weapon to fight against corrupt practices which have plagued the various national youth employment programmes created under the previous governments.
Mr. Afetsi was of the opinion beneficiaries of the new NEIP introduced by President Akufo-Addo to promote the growth and development of entrepreneurship and to accelerate job creation for national development should not be for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) faithful or political allies, rather should be national in character.
The initiative, is a multi-pronged approach aimed at creating conducive and business-friendly environment to stimulate enterprise activities and provide integrated national support for start-ups and small businesses that would in turn generate employment for the teeming youth of Ghana.
The US$10 million seed money for the Plan, should be leveraged to raise money from private sources and public organisations to the tune of US$100 million to fund its programmes.
But, speaking in a recent media interview in Accra, Mr. Afetsi expressed worry that several of such programmes had been initiated by previous successive governments yet there are no evidence to show for those investments touted to be meant for the youth.
He cited the example of the national projects such as YES, GYEEDA, NYEP, LESDEP which the government claimed to have empowered the youth had one way or the other failed to materialize the purpose for which they were established.
“How many youth got the opportunity of being employed under these national programmes and where are the evidence,” he dared, fuming that huge sum of tax payers’ money is sunk into the establishment of these national programmes and still youth unemployment in the country keeps rising.”
