Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wireko-Brobby, has revealed that President Akufo-Addo’s flagship programmes have created over 5.3 million jobs for the Ghanaian people.

0

Delivering a speech at this year’s Ghana Job Fair dubbed “Green Edition” in Tamale, the Hemang Lower Denkyira MP noted that “these jobs are either formal or informal, permanent or temporary and full-time or part-time.”

1

According to him, government initiatives such as the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Nation Builders Corps (NABCO), Youth Employment Programme, One-District-One-Factory Initiative, and the Planting for Food and Jobs Programme, are what have contributed primarily to the over 5.3 million jobs.

2

This feat, Mr Wireko-Brobby described as unprecedented and the first in the history of the Fourth Republic.

3

The Deputy Minister’s assertion comes at a time when Ghana is witnessing a dramatic increase in unemployment rate.

4

Despite the government’s initiative to solve the devastating unemployment rate in the country, the labour force that is without work as of 2020 was 4.65%, a 0.34% increase from 2019.

5

Ghana’s unemployment rate in 2022 was 4.70%, a 0.05% increase from 2020.

6

In the second quarter of 2022, the Annual Household and Expenditure Survey (AHIES), under the Harmonizing and Improving Statistics in West Africa Project, revealed that the unemployment rate rose from 13.4 percent to 13.9 percent (1.8 million people).

7

Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Anim, revealed that at the end of June this year, about 850,000 people who had jobs at the beginning of the year lost their jobs. Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister for Employment and Labour Relations has maintained that the government is committed to investing in programmes and creating more opportunities, especially for the youth, to have adequate income security.

8

He touted that, as part of efforts to create jobs and equal opportunities, his outfit has created an enabling environment for all relevant stakeholders to foster linkages and build synergies for job creation.

9

“As a responsible government, we would continue to roll out more programmes and interventions to give hope to the teeming youth who hitherto were in a state of despair.

10

He further added that ”the newly introduced YouStart initiative would also complement existing programmes to create more decent opportunities for the youth.”

11

Although the government has said it is committed to addressing youth unemployment, it failed to sustain its NABCO programme, which enrolled 100,000 graduates.

12

The programme which commenced in 2017 was brought to an end on September 1, 2022, after government faced challenges with paying allowances to trainees of the programme.

13

Source: The Independent Ghana

14