NPP Has Created 1 Million Jobs

It has emerged that the Nana Akuffo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government has facilitated the creation of over one million jobs in both the public and private sectors of the Ghanaian economy since January 2017.

In the view of Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, these jobs were only in the formal sector and “so what happened in the informal sector is not even accounted for”.

He stated that the jobs created is as a result of the various interventions put in place by President Akufo-Addo.

“Mr. President, the good news is that your government has made significant strides in addressing unemployment situation in Ghana”.

Baffour-Awuah, made the disclosure at the launch of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) in Kumasi yesterday aimed at exploring other alternatives of creating jobs for the country’s youth.

“Between January 2017 and March 2018, a total of 1,096,404 various jobs within the formal space as a result of the various interventions from His Excellency, the president. The details of these jobs are with me, and I will make them available to the press for their deeper consideration of the figures,” he added.

The Employment and Labour Minister said youth unemployment was becoming one of the most critical challenges of the Ghanaian national life today and that graduate unemployment is even worse.

ISSER Findings

The minister noted that the urgency to create jobs for the teeming graduates has become paramount considering the fact that less than 10 percent of graduates are able to find jobs after national service, according to a study by the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER).

The study, he said further shows that it takes up to three years for a large number of graduates to secure descent employment even after national service.

Still on the statistics on unemployment, the minister said the Labour Field Survey conducted in 2015 and launched in 2017 shows that employment rates in Ghana as of 2015 stood at 11.9 percent of the labour force.

This, Baffour-Awuah stated further indicates that 25 percent of the unemployed are within the youth category with about 11.7 percent of jobs even underemployed.

Baffour Awuah said the emergence of the Nation Builders Corps was therefore “timely and accurate as it addresses the frustration, confusion and lack of jobs and direction for our youth.”

NABCO

NABCO will initially operate seven modules designed to meet the pressing needs of the nation while providing jobs for the teeming youth who have received tertiary education but are struggling for jobs.

The modules include the Feed Ghana module where people serve as agric extension officers to help our farmers. There’s also the Educate Ghana module where people will teach science and mathematics in High schools. The Revenue Ghana module will take graduates into the Ghana Revenue Authority to help in the collection of revenue.

There would be the Heal Ghana module for nurses and the Enterprise Ghana module where graduates will be assigned to various private sector enterprises for jobs and skills training as well as development.

The Digitise Ghana module will see graduates being sent to the IT sector for the Digital Ghana agenda, the transformation agenda, where they will be attached to the NIA or to the Ghana Post or to the Birth and Death Registry or to the Land Registry.

The Governance Ghana module would also see people attached to various local authorities.

By: Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson