In a new development Lusine Kallon the Deputy Minister of Youth Affairs led a delegation to Kenya and Ghana ahead of the review of the National Youth Service (NYS) Act, which was legislated in 2016.
The team comprises Hon. Abdul Kargbo-Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Youth Affairs, NYS Board Chairman Sahr Nyaama and the NYS Deputy Executive Director Onanah Jalloh.
The NYS study tour to Kenya and Ghana is to inform the review of the 2016 NYS Act, as proclaimed by President Julius Maada Bio in his maiden address to Parliament on 10th May 2018.
The choice of Kenya and Ghana is meant to obtain best practices from the youth services of both countries and to further obtain all technical information and literature that would enhance the implementation of the scheme in Sierra Leone.
Minister Kallon said the New Direction believes in effective institutional reforms that will resonate with youth empowerment and national development. According to him, this will help the Government to implement programmes and projects in line with its national agenda.
“The study tour is important and timely,” said Minister Kallon, “it will help us to obtain best practices and lessons from other countries ahead of the review process.”
Onanah Jalloh, Deputy Executive Director of the NYS said they are on track and working assiduously to ensure that the NYS becomes an envy in the sub-region. He said since inception, the NYS was dormant but they have injected a “new blood” into the scheme to achieve President Bio’s ambitious vision for the youth.
“We were able to recruit the first batch of graduate corps and today they have been deployed across the country,” said Director Jalloh.
He went on to state that after the tour they would certainly review the Act which is why they are travelling with the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Youth Affairs to demonstrate seriousness.