The government yesterday launched a new module of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) designed to absorb more than 10,000 youth into the road sector.

The initiative, as part of a sustained effort to widen employment opportunities for the youth, is geared towards establishing various vigilante teams to constantly maintain and repair the country's roads and make them motorable and reduce the frequency of accidents on them.

The project, being implemented under a private/public partnership, will initially create jobs for 1,000 youth in each of the 10 regions and build the capacity and sharpen the skills of hundreds of young people, particularly those who have studied engineering at the tertiary level.

As a labour-intensive project, it is also part of the government's "Better Ghana" agenda.

Launching the programme on behalf of President John Evans Atta Mills in Accra, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, challenged the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDA) to play a critical role in the programme and ensure that "we get value for the fund committed to the project".

He expressed grave concern about how most institutions that had supervisory role over good initiatives such as the module relented on their responsibilities, a situation which usually led to the collapse of such programmes in no time.

He identified lack of regular payment to those engaged in jobs under the various NYEP modules as the biggest challenge but noted that "fortunately for us, this time round sources of payment have been identified".

Mr Chireh lauded the Zeeba Group, the private company which is collaborating with the Ministry of Roads and Highways in the latest module, for its vision.

The National Youth Co-ordinator of the NYEP, Mr Abuga Pele, announced that the government had increased the percentage of talk time tax allotted to the programme from 20 to 60 per cent.

That, he said, would provide resources to the NYEP to undertake various programmes to equip the youth with skills to improve and strengthen the capacity of the youth.

A Deputy Minister of Energy, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, said the social challenges posed by the annual unemployment rate called for radical interventions such as the road module and commended the organisers for putting in place such "stoppage measures".

He said the government would within the next five of more years be able to develop the critical areas of the energy sector to take care of the oil find.

Mr Fuseini said the government spent a total of $1 billion for the past five years on road construction and maintenance, hence the need to keep the roads in good shape.

He said the government did not believe in a situation whereby the roads would be allowed to deteriorate beyond repairs before taking action.

A Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Antwi-Bosiako Sekyere, urged the youth to develop skills and the required attitude to enable them to penetrate the job market.

Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, who chaired the occasion, encouraged the youth to exercise restraint, since the government had initiated a lot of interventions to solve the youth unemployment problem.

The Communications Director of Zeeba Group, Mr Jake Quayson, said the company had endorsed the vision espoused by the Mills administration to create jobs for the youth, hence its decision to collaborate with the Ministry of Road and Transport in executing this module.

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