Dean of the University of Cape Coast School of Business, Professor John Gatsi, has indicated that the unemployment situation in the country is a disaster.
Speaking on the state of youth unemployment in Ghana, he stated that it keeps worsening as opportunities are not being created for more people to be employed.
“When we look at unemployment, I say it’s a disaster. You look at the thousands of students graduating from our various tertiary institutions, thinking that they are going into the job market and it is not there.”
Professor John Gatsi
According to Professor Gatsi, over a long period of time, what government has been doing in this regard is what he terms as an intervention and not employment. He added that intervention is not what economic management results should produce.
“It’s just like something we are doing to appease the people. As soon as they start, one month, two months, they realize that this thing that they are doing is not what will take them to where they want to be or want to go to.”
Professor John Gatsi
Touching on the current state of the economy, Professor Gatsi indicated that there is the need for government to take a critical look at the economy and improve upon it. He suggested to government to ensure things are done properly to help it recover quickly.
Speaking about some suggestions that Ghanaians called for Dr. Bawumia to speak on the economic issues because they believed in him or believed he had a better explanation to the current situation, he intimated that wasn’t the case. He rather disclosed that Dr. Bawumia was being called upon due to some economic assurances he gave which haven’t materialized.
Contrasting Dr. Gatsi’s position, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, former Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku, stated that statistically, government is not doing bad when it comes to employment. However, he acknowledged that COVID took away the activities of a lot of people thus rendering quite a number of people unemployed.
“Those who rent cars for close to two years had no business. Those into rentals all that time had no business. If a job at that time had collapsed, how does it expand to take in more people?
Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye
Government has done a lot
The former Ledzokuku MP intimated that facts and figures show government has done a lot both in the public and private sector when it comes to unemployment. “If you look at our manifesto, the theme for it was job creation. The reason is that all the research and survey showed that the biggest single problem in this country was youth unemployment. This was a standing problem before we came.”
Dr. Okoe Boye averred that one of the yardsticks to measure the improvement in employment is to take a look at the GDP growth. He explained that this is because economic activity picked up when the new government assumed office.
“It doesn’t mean every youth got a job but it starts from somewhere. There is something you can use to measure whether the government is creating opportunities or not.”
Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye
The former MP admitted to the country having a problem with regards to employment but intimated that post COVID-19 recovery has started and he is hopeful the recovery will be soon, so that more job opportunities will be created. He asserted that the economy will also bounce back if there is an aggressive recovery.
Commenting on Dr. Bawumia’s address on the economy, Dr. Okoe Boye, stated that the Vice President answered most of the questions asked to enable Ghanaians appreciate how far the nation has come. He indicated that fortunately, things are picking up in the economy and if the nation continues on the trend it is taking, with time, things will get better.
“I’m excited that Ghanaians still have some faith in him. Since we started, especially in this first quarter, the rapid depreciation of the cedi and an increase in price of goods generally, for the past few months, people were like, where is Dr? Doc must speak. It’s an indication that people believe that he understands the dynamics of the economy and he can tell us what is happening. I think he did a good job at telling us what was happening.”
Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye
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