Former Deputy Minister of Information, Pius Enam Hadzide has been appointed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Youth Authority (NYA).

Mr Hadzide who was also a former Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports replaces Mr Sylvester Matthew Tetteh, who is currently serving as a legislator in the eighth parliament of the Fourth Republic, representing Bortianor-Ngleshie Amanfro in the Greater Accra Region.

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Born on 14 June 1979, he attended Bishop Herman College in Kpando, where he earned his WASSCE certificate. After that, he attended Accra Technical University, then Accra Polytechnic, and later the University of Cape Coast.

Hadzide is also an alumnus of the Theodor Heuss Academy of Leadership in Gummersbach, Germany. He is currently studying for an LLB at the University of London.

He worked with the President’s Special Initiative on Distance Learning (PSI-DL) as subject coordinator for science before moving on to become a business development manager for the advertising and media buying giant Akroma Ltd. He also worked as the general manager of Ideas Advertising Ltd before venturing into politics and public service.

In 2012, Hadzide was the New Patriotic Party parliamentary candidate for Ketu North in the Volta Region.

He served briefly as a Deputy Communications Director for the NPP before being appointed as a campaign aide to the then flagbearer and now president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in 2015.

In 2017, Pius Hadzide was named the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports and was cleared of corruption allegations before he was reassigned as a Deputy Information Minister in November 2018.

According to the President, a Police report exonerated Mr Hadzide who was at the time serving a suspension from his role as a Deputy Minister of Sports.

He was suspended alongside the Acting Director-General of the National Sports Authority (NSA), Robert Sarfo Mensah, on April 12, 2018, for their alleged roles in a visa racketeering scandal during the 2018 Commonwealth games.

At least 50 persons who claimed to be journalists and were in Australia to cover the Commonwealth Games were arrested and repatriated for bearing false identities.

But speaking at the 26th national delegates conference of the New Patriotic Party at Koforidua in the Eastern Region on Saturday, President Akufo-Addo said Mr Hadzide will be reinstated on Monday, July 9, 2018.

“Upon my return from South Africa on a state visit I’ve received the report on the Australian Visa scandal which has exonerated the suspended Deputy Minister for Youth and Sports from any complicity in the visa fraud. I’ll lift his suspension on Monday and return him to office," President Akufo-Addo said.

About NYA

The National Youth Authority (NYA) was established in 1974 by NRDC 241. It is a Statutory Public Organization with the mandate to coordinate and facilitate youth empowerment activities in Ghana to ensure the development of the Ghanaian youth as a whole.

The Authority was formerly known as “the National Youth Council (NYC).” In 1981, by an administrative directive, the Council was transformed into a “Commission” status as “the National Youth Organizing Commission” with the focus to organize a mass national youth movement called the “Democratic Youth League of Ghana (DYLG).”

With the inception of constitutional rule in 1992, the Commission's status reverted to the “Council” once more. In consequence of a statute law revision exercise under the laws of Ghana (Revised Edition) Act, 1998 (Act 562), the nomenclature of the Authority was changed to the current, “National Youth Authority”.