By Mohamed Massaquoi in Pujehun and Mabinty Kamara in Freetown
A landmark youth employment scheme designed by the government for unskilled young people has met with a major stumbling block after the sponsor failed to provide cash to sustain the scheme.
Mohamed Kamara, Public Relations Officer at the Ministry of Youths confirmed that some 2, 500 youth across the country, involved in the ‘YouthsEmpowerment Scheme’, being managed by the ministry, had gone for eight months without pay.
He added that those young unemployed people had since complained about the adverse effect that development continued to have on their lives and those of their families.
The temporary employment project funded by the Roads Maintenance FundAdministration (RMFA) was designed to complement government’s effort at addressing youth unemployment, which stands at over 60%, according to World Bank and UN estimates.
Through the project young men and women were hired to provide general cleaning and roads maintenance. They cleaned the streets and drainages and some public institutions through agreement brokered by the ministry.
The project covers Freetown and parts of the provinces, including Pujehun, where some of the aggrieved youths had expressed concerns over delays in payment.
Mohamed Seiwoh is one of 40 people hired to clean the district headquarter town of Pujehun. He told Politico that they had not been paid for the last seven months.
Each of the youths was being paid Le400, 000 per month, even though they
had complained about the Le30,000 that was being deducted from the payment of some of them some youth ministry officials.
Mr Seiwoh said the delay in payment of their salary had greatly affected their personal plans.
“I had the plan to seek admission at the Distance Education College from Pujehun with the hope that I should have been using this money to pay my fees,” he said.
His colleague, Peter Nallo, another youth worker, expressed hope to repay a “huge” debt he had accrued over the seven month period. He said he’d taken the debt with the hope to repay them after the Youth ministry would have paid them.
“This is really embarrassing as we could not even celebrate the NewYear in peace,” he lamented, adding that President Ernest Bai Koroma’s promise of “dying for the youths” seemed to be being undermined by this development.
Gbessay Koroma’s two children should have been in school but his failure to make some advance payment meant that they would be sitting at home. His hope to see them return to school would depend entirely on how soon the ministry would pay their salaries.
Initiated in November 2013, the temporary employment project was the brainchild of the minister of youth affairs, and it was part of a package of initiatives his ministry had earmarked to alleviate poverty among the country’s youth population.
Kamara said the delay in payment was that the RMF was faced with serious financial challenges. He admitted that the situation was not isolated to Pujehun, adding that a number of other districts, including the Western Area, were also affected.
“But it is not our fault…Even the President [Ernest Koroma] is equally concerned,” he told Politico.
Abdul Kaloko, chief executive officer of the Fund, admitted that the delay in payment was their fault but blamed that on the Ebola epidemic. He said they could generate enough revenue to meet all their commitments.
“Everyone knows that the Ebola affected our revenue base,” he told Politico.
Mr Kaloko promised that within the next two weeks they intended to settle the seven month [June to December 2015] outstanding payment.
“As soon as we have the money we will pay them,” he promised.
(C) Politico 20/01/16
