Ebou Sowe, the deputy director of National Youth Service Scheme (NYSS),
has told the Public Account Committee and Public Enterprise Committee (PAC/PEC)
of the National Assembly that 96 young people were recruited across the country
to be trained in different agricultural enterprises.
The NYSS deputy director made this statement Thursday while adopting the Scheme’s report by the PAC/ PEC committees of the National Assembly.
Mr Sowe said that 31 out of the 96 youths recruited were deployed at the Nyaniberri farm, 25 at the Sapu farm and 40 at Chamen Agricultural Training Centre.
The training lasted for five months and the trainees in Sapu benefited from the agricultural training programme organised by the Taiwanese Technical Mission.
Out of the total number of trainees, two from Sapu group did not complete their training due to bad behaviour, which earned them expulsion, he said.
The 94 youths who successfully completed their training and received certificates underwent various entrepreneurship training by the National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI).
Following their graduation and return to their respective communities, some of the trainees interested in groundnut farming were given 45 bags of groundnut seeds by the NYSS as a form of support.
In partnership with voluntary services overseas, the NYSS deputy director told the PAC/ PEC committees that the Ministry of Youth and Sports had entered into a partnership with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) which had been of benefit to the NYSS through the placement of a Youth Policy Advisor into the scheme.
The implementation of the NYSS activities requires human, material and financial resources thus the need to train staff, he said, adding that an increase and timely release of subvention and provision of office equipment is urgently in the high demand for effective and efficient service delivery.
Dilating on the area of contributions from local authorities, the NYSS deputy director informed the PAC/ PEC committees that the 10 per cent contribution of LGA towards the training of corps members from all the regions had continued to be problematic since 2007.
He added that the total amount of outstanding contribution for the 10th and 11th batches is D761,473.77.
