YEFL-Ghana DACF disbursement advocacy receives Parliament’s attention
THE Youth Empowerment for Life (YEFL) Ghana has said its advocacy for the full disbursement of statutory allocation from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to key youth development institutions is being given attention by the Parliament of Ghana.
The Member of Parliament for Walewale, Dr MahamaTiah Abdul-Kabiru, raised the issue in a statement in Parliament on Thursday, March 12, urging the government and the Ministry of Finance to ensure strict compliance with legal provisions that mandated the release of five per cent of the DACF to the National Youth Authority (NYA) and the 10 per cent to the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), or 2.5 per cent where full compliance cannot be immediately met.
Dr Abdul-Kabiru’s call followed findings from YEFL-Ghana’s “Follow the Money” campaign, which has been tracking DACF allocations to the NYA and YEA from 2017 to 2025.
This came after YEFL-Ghana had held several engagements with key Members of Parliament from the Finance Committee, Business Committee, and Members of the Youth and Sports Select Committee.
YEFL-Ghana, a youth empowerment-focused NGO based in Tamale, is currently pushing for an increase of the allocation of the DACF share to NYA and YEA from 1.2 per cent.
The Follow the Money campaign is an advocacy strategy being pursued by YEFL-Ghana under the Empowerment for Life Programme, seeking to influence the government to comply with the laws to release the full funding amounts as stipulated in the laws to the NYA and YEA to support youth empowerment and development in the country.
Dr Abdul-Kabiru said data from the campaign revealed worrying inconsistencies in DACF disbursements in recent years despite clear statutory provisions backing the allocations.
He explained that the legal framework established through the YEA Act and the NYA Act mandated the DACF Secretariat to allocate five per cent of the DACF to the NYA and 10 per cent to the YEA annually.
He said, however, available data from the advocacy campaign indicated that between 2020 and 2024, the NYA received an average of only 2.8 per cent of the fund while the YEA received about 5.8 per cent, which were significantly below the statutory thresholds.
FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, TAMALE
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