CEO of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Pius Enam Hadzide, has strongly criticized the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in response to their objections towards the 10% betting tax.
The implementation of the 10% betting tax, a component of the government’s revenue generation initiatives, has been met with critique and apprehension.
In a communication endorsed by the National Youth Organizer, George Opare Addo, the youth division of the NDC issued a statement outlining a sequence of measures aimed at pressuring the government into retracting the 10% betting tax.
The decision comes in response to what the party perceives as a burdensome taxation policy that unfairly impacts the country’s youth and the broader betting industry.
Speaking on Eyewitness News with Selorm Adonoo, Pius Hadzie stated, “I’m pretty much scandalised listening to NDC, with the impression they are creating. If there is a problem with employment, in NDC’s view, young people should resort to betting, as a means of resolving whatever challenges young people are confronted with. I’m scandalised.”
“Let me just place it on record that, it is not just the Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, who has issues with betting and what betting can do to the value system of any country, even the Minority Leader, Ato Forson has called on the state to ban all forms of betting”.
The CEO of NYA lambasted the NDC for instigating the youth to fight the government.
“The young people are being prepared for the future and if you want to lead the country, you should be discussing policies and not that there are hardships, young people should resort to betting, a game of luck, a game of chance. And that we are not going to encourage the Ghanaian youth who are hardworking, entrepreneurs, by the way, to continue to work hard.”
Pius Hadzide admitted that Ghana, like other developing countries, is also confronted with youth unemployment, but assured that the government is putting in measures to mitigate the issue.
“I do admit that just like other developing countries, there are challenges, youth unemployment, issues of education, issues of health…for the first time in this country, the young people of this country are now getting hope. Today, due to free SHS, hundreds of thousands of young people whose future would have been truncated at the basic level, are now in secondary schools,” the NYA CEO said.