The Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) have joined forces in a strategic alliance aimed at empowering young Ghanaians through targeted development initiatives.
The partnership is expected to leverage football’s vast influence to create opportunities, foster skills training, and enhance youth engagement across the country.
According to a statement from the GFA, the high-level engagement, held at the YEA offices, was aimed at exploring strategic partnerships to support youth development and strengthen the existing collaboration between the two institutions.
The meeting focused on key areas of mutual interest, including financial support for football clubs, particularly women’s football, and leveraging football as a vehicle for youth empowerment and employment.
In his remarks, President Simeon-Okraku emphasized the longstanding relationship between the GFA and the YEA, recalling a crucial moment during the COVID-19 pandemic when the YEA extended financial support to women’s football in Ghana.
He lauded the partnership as historic and impactful, particularly for female footballers who, for the first time, received monthly stipends through YEA’s intervention.
“The Football Association and your good selves have a history, at least in my term as President of the Ghana Football Association. During the COVID era, YEA supported women’s football and that was the first time in the lives of many of our female footballers to earn money at the end of every month,” he said.
President Okraku highlighted the natural synergy between the GFA and YEA, noting that both institutions operate within the youth development ecosystem.
He pointed to shared objectives in areas such as refereeing, coaching, and football administration, fields that offer vital employment pathways for young Ghanaians.
He further underscored the GFA’s contribution to youth employment, using the recent success of the Black Queens at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) as a prime example.
“Just like your good selves, we also provide employment for the youth of our country. In the last few weeks, the entire country had been glued to their TV sets watching our beautiful Queens glow at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations. They are back in Ghana and belong to the youth category, so clearly there is a lot of potential synergy between our good selves and YEA.”
President Okraku concluded his address by reiterating his commitment to forging stronger ties with the YEA, expressing enthusiasm about the potential impact such a partnership could have on Ghanaian youth.
“I came here with a strong team to explore the opportunities that exist between our two entities in this strategic space that we occupy. I am very excited about the opportunity to dialogue and to explore how best we can impact the youth of our country.”
In response, YEA CEO Malik Basintale welcomed the GFA delegation and expressed his agency’s readiness to deepen its collaboration with the Football Association.
He reaffirmed YEA’s commitment to supporting football and other youth-centered initiatives that contribute to national development.
“I’ve engaged the President of the GFA on ways of exploring opportunities for the youth of our nation. We are determined to leave a legacy of impacting society before we bow out at some point in our lives.
“The YEA and the GFA have a longstanding relationship, and we’ll seek to build on it,” he hinted.
According to the GFA, this renewed collaboration signals a promising chapter in the joint effort to empower young people through sports and employment-focused initiatives.
This partnership was signed on Tuesday, July 29, 2025, when GFA President Kurt Edwin Simeon-Okraku led a delegation of Executive Council members to pay a courtesy call on the Chief Executive Officer of YEA, Malik Basintale.
Mr. Okraku was accompanied by Executive Council members Nana Sarfo Oduro, Eugene Noel Nobel, Samuel Aboabire and Gideon F,osu.
