Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment, George Opare-Addo, has revealed that the sanitation module under the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) will be opened up for competitive bidding, ending any perception of an exclusive arrangement with waste management giant Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

In an interview on Channel One TV’s The Point of View, the Minister indicated that the review of YEA’s operational modules will commence once the newly constituted board is sworn into office on Wednesday, May 7.

“The Board will be sworn in on Wednesday, May 7. One of the key things I will tell the board to review immediately is to review all the modules under the YEA to assess the impact, to see how best these programmes have impacted,” he said.

He disclosed that there is currently no formal contract between the YEA and Zoomlion, the firm that previously worked with the agency on the Youth in Sanitation Module.

“Currently there’s no contract with Zoomlion, we’ll assess sanitation module impact so far as to whether to maintain what we still have. But we will open up the tender, so that other people can also tender, which I can guarantee,” Opare-Addo stated.

He further explained that upcoming tenders would be decentralized to ensure fair regional participation: “It will be done on a regional basis so that the tender will be done on all 16 regions,” he added.

Despite these new developments, the Parliamentary Committee on Sanitation has urged government to reconsider and maintain its longstanding collaboration with Zoomlion.

Acting Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, Malik Basintale, has taken a firm stance on wage conditions. He has declared that the agency will not renew any contract with Zoomlion if sanitation workers continue to earn GH¢250 monthly.

Zoomlion began its partnership with the government under the then Ministry of Youth and Sports through the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) in 2006, now known as the Youth Employment Authority (YEA). Under the sanitation module, Zoomlion was tasked with managing youth beneficiaries engaged in public sanitation work across the country.

According to the original terms, YEA is responsible for recruiting beneficiaries, while Zoomlion handles their supervision. Each beneficiary was to receive GH¢850 monthly — GH¢258 as allowance and GH¢592 as a management fee to cover logistics, protective gear, and administrative costs.

Zoomlion has long advocated for improved allowances for sanitation workers and is said to have continued operations without government reimbursement for over a year, citing its commitment to environmental health and youth empowerment.

In fulfilling its obligations, Zoomlion was required to pre-finance beneficiary payments and later claim quarterly reimbursements from government. However, delayed reimbursements over extended periods have prompted calls for interest payments to compensate for financial strain.

The firm has regularly submitted quarterly and annual reports to YEA since 2008 and has built a nationwide sanitation infrastructure that includes 36 waste treatment plants, of which 18 are material recovery facilities. It also boasts the creation of over 6,000 core jobs, 30,000 tricycle rider positions, and an estimated 200,000 opportunities along its waste management value chain.