It is the desire of every parent to raise children that will be responsible in the near future to themselves, their parents, the nation and the world at large. This among other things, is the reason why parents and guardians will have to go through ‘hell’ on earth to see their children through school. As the old saying goes ‘education is the key to success’. So, many young graduates believe that once they have completed their education, at least a first degree, they should be able to secure their dream jobs. But this has only been a dream which has never come to pass for many graduates in Ghana.
Unfortunately, our universities churn out so many graduates annually, and with limited jobs, the end result has always been increasing rates of unemployment and underemployment in the country. A recent report from the Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) puts the unemployment rate at 8.4 percent. Tackling unemployment has been on the manifestoes of all political parties in Ghana since time immemorial. Just like previous election years, the year 2020 has also come with several of such promises from the political parties. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) stated in their 2020 manifesto that they will implement a ‘job and skill program’ worth US$200 million in their next term of office.
“Under the US$200 million project, the youth will be provided with apprenticeship, entrepreneurship, and skills development training as well as grants for their entrepreneurship projects”.
This program according to the NPP, is in two phases. The first phase is the provision of the requisite skills needed for a successful business establishment. The NPP said, “a second component of the project will be aimed at supporting young jobseekers to find jobs through public employment centres across the country”.
Entrepreneurial training is vital for youth development because the private sector employers, most often than not, shy away from training young graduates to fit into the job market. Therefore, if government takes up this role to provide the training, it will be a very laudable idea.
But the concern is; why won’t the government rather equip the various technical, vocational and tertiary institutions with the requisite infrastructure and funds to train the students in entrepreneurship before they graduate from school?
With regards to the promise, what will be the duration of this training? What will be the eligibility criteria? What support can the government give to job seekers if there are no jobs in the first place? There are countless questions to be answered on this promise.
The next NPP government also promises to establish Entrepreneurial Hubs for Small Businesses. According to the NPP, “the major constraints facing small businesses include access to capital, cost of machinery and land, and high interest rates.
“Many businesses have good ideas, but are unable to raise money to finance these ideas. In our next term, we will set up fully serviced hubs in partnership with the private sector with the requisite equipment for production in areas such as tailoring, agro-processing, shea butter production, soaps, and shoe manufacturing.
“So, a producer of uniforms, for example, would not tie up money in equipment. The person can rent time at the hub, use the equipment, produce the uniforms, leave and return when the person has another contract. These business hubs would be located within regional industrial parks initially, and extended to every district in due course”.
Locating the hub at the regional capital may pose some challenges as has always been with most policies in Ghana. One may ask; what happens to people who resides far from the regional capital? For such people to take advantage of this program, they will need to bear huge transportation costs, feeding costs and even accommodation costs in some instances. They may even be better off buying the equipment themselves.
An alternative could be to identify major commercial towns and cities in each region to cite these hubs which may or may not necessarily be the regional capital. Government may also consider providing the beneficiaries with the needed equipment to aid their businesses as capital constraints have been the major challenge to youth entrepreneurship in Ghana. Establishment of the hub is a brilliant idea but Ghana, as a country, has a poor culture of maintenance. Will these hubs be properly maintained if established?
With regards to what the NPP has done as far as job creation is concerned in their three and halve years in office, the incumbent government said;
“Our policies have also led to significant job creation by the private sector, for example through the revival of the Obuasi Mine of Anglogold Ashanti. Since its restart, from June 2018, to June 2020, the Obuasi Mine has employed 4,163 people on the mine rehabilitation project, with 78% of the US$502 million so far spent going directly to Ghanaian-owned (39%) and Ghana-domiciled (39%) firms that hire Ghanaians, and over two-hundred and fifty thousand private formal sector jobs according to data from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
“We have created over two million jobs in the public and private formal sectors since 2017 (inclusive of Government job-creation programmes and initiatives such as Planting for Food and Jobs, NABCO Graduate Programme and National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan).
“We have established a national job recruitment agency through the Youth Employment Agency’s (YEA) Job-Matching Centres to match Ghanaian youth with job openings”.
This year being an election, as the various political parties make promises that are aimed at creating jobs to solve the unemployment situation in the country, care should be taken because the youth are the major assets of this country. Youth empowerment should be the major focus and not merely political ambitions of the various political parties. Once the youth become the priority of the various political parties, their involvement in nation building will increase. This will reduce their involvement in political violence and vigilantism that we normally witness during elections in this country.
The youth must also position themselves well to take advantage of the various programs and policies initiated by the various government so as to be able to build a better future for themselves, their families and the nation as a whole.
