Some beneficiaries of the Youth in Afforestation programme under the Forestry Commission are demanding their unpaid allowances.
It will be recalled that beneficiaries of the programme some years ago threatened to stop working on the project over the same issue. They, however, received their allowances after a series of demonstrations.
According to the beneficiaries who work on the Achimota Forest Eco-park project, they have not received money for work done since October 2020.
Speaking to Citi News, some of the aggrieved beneficiaries shared their frustrations and stated that all attempts to get the allowances paid have proved futile.
“In fact, for about three or four months now, they have not been able to pay us, and we are suffering. We always come to work and to do that we have to take cars, but we still haven’t been paid. The whole of the Christmas break, we had to rely on our own money because we weren’t paid. They owe some of us for five or six months, and it is very disturbing. It is a good programme but if the government is not interested in it, they should just cancel it and then pay us all our arrears,” one of the beneficiaries said.
“Imagine working as a beneficiary of Youth in Afforestation project and for three months and your allowance hasn’t been paid and there has not been a word from anyone. Schools have reopened and school fees have increased, yet there have not been payments made and some of us are parents with children,” another beneficiary stated.
In line with the NPP’s 2016 manifesto commitment of reforestation, forest rehabilitation, and forest protection activities, the Youth in Afforestation Programme was launched on August 13, 2018, at the Jubilee Park in Kumasi.
It is an initiative to help reduce the rate of youth unemployment while building more trees.
Over 20,000 youth were part of the beneficiaries of the launch.