Youth in Afforestation appeals to govt to pay their arrears

Beneficiaries of Youth in Afforestation in the Kumasi Metropolis are complaining about the hardship they are compelled to live with over 15 months because government has been dragging its feet. According to them , government’s reluctant to pay their arrears is not only affecting their living but also posses threat to the Green Ghana project which government is spending huge sums of money to restore the loss vegetative cover of the country.

In consonance with the ruling New Patriotic party’s 2016 manifesto commitment of reforestation ,forest rehabilitation and forest protection activities, the Youth in Afforestation programme was launched on August 13, 2018, to help reduce the rate of youth unemployment while building restoring the loss vegetative cover of the country’s degraded forest . however beneficiaries of the programme have over time protested to drum home their concerns about the non payment of allowances and poor working conditions . The beneficiaries of the programme are into nurturing and making sure the seeds germinates . Speaking on the sidelines of 2023 green Ghana Day in Kumasi, some affected beneficiaries bemoaned the hardship that they go through as a result of lack of payment by the forestry Commission , adding that lack of payment will make it difficult for them to perform their function in nurturing and maintaining the plants which they added will pose a serious threat to the Green Ghana day project initiated by the ministry of Lands and Natural resources in 2021, since they are in charge of protecting , nurturing and maintaining the trees in most public places .they however appealed to President Akufo Addo to as a matter of urgency intervene for their arrears to be paid to alleviate them from suffering as well as protecting the programme.

Meanwhile the Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources in-charge of Forestry , Benito Owusu Bio , reacting to the concerns of the youth in Afforestation programme admitted government owing the youth but was quick to add that the ministry is in talk with the finance ministry to clear all the outstanding arrears including that of plantation developers and seedlings contractors.