This, he says, is a necessary first step towards realigning all pro-youth interventions, policies and programmes to help avoid duplication and wastage.

It will also ensure proper coordination and supervision, the deputy minister said.

He made the comments at a press briefing on the first 100 days of the government.  

Scattered interventions

Mr Hadzide bemoaned the situation where several youth intervention programmes had been scattered across several sectors.

 “The YEA, YES and even the National Service Scheme must necessarily come under the purview of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in accord with the spirit and latter of the Civil Service Law Act 327 of 1993 which enjoins the ministry to formulate youth and sports policies, monitor and evaluate policy implementation to achieve national integration and international recognition, promote youth empowerment and self development and provide an enabling environment for sports development, organisation and promotion,” he said.

He explained that the need to relocate the YEA and YES was further strengthened by the promise of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to create a one stop-shop for all youth and pro-youth programmes and interventions.

“The President of the Republic has great confidence in the youth of Ghana and wants us to find a fair balance between youth mobilisation and development and sports development. The sector minister and I are committed to this,” he stressed.

Achievements in youth and sports

On the government’s achievements within the first 100 days, Mr Hadzide said it had achieved much across all sectors of the economy and added that the President had made a bold and emphatic statement about his intentions to move Ghana forward.

In the area of Youth and Sports, the deputy minister mentioned an increase of over 100 per cent of budgetary allocation to the ministry, the institution of a monthly National Keep Fit and Health Campaign, under the auspices of the Vice President, the setting up of a Nostalgia Sports Tourism Centre at Cape Coast to celebrate Sports Heroes and Heroines and the retooling of the country's youth leadership and skills training institutes as some of the achievements chalked up.

He also said that the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) had been given a new lease of life and was now expected to recruit about 80,000 young people this year.