Govt unveils ambitious plan to create million jobs

The Minister of Finance (MoF), Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has unveiled an ambitious plan by the government to create one million jobs as part of a grand scheme to aggressively and efficiently respond to the country’s persistent youth unemployment.

He said the initiative was expected to promote growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), support new ventures, and stimulate innovation and start-ups.

 “Mr Speaker, recognising that more needs to be done, the government is today announcing a ‘One Million jobs initiative,’ to aggressively respond to the needs of the country.

“This is to promote growth in SMEs, support new ventures, and stimulate innovation and start-ups,” Mr Ofori-Atta said when he presented the 2021 Mid-year Budget in Parliament on July 29.

Enterprise and youth support

As a result, the minister stated that the Enterprise and Youth Support Fund (EYSF), which aligns with the government’s overall strategy of developing a competitive and viable private sector economy will be pursued.

He said it would set up a “youth bank” with the aim of financing youth-led start-up businesses across the country.

As part of this initiative, he said an online investment hub will be established for youth across the country to access information for the purpose of establishing businesses.

He said under this initiative, it was estimated that over 100,000 jobs will be created.

“The EYSF will be managed by the Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), which is being revamped to be better positioned to carry out the designated activities as a fund manager.

“We are also pursuing the ‘Obaatanpa’ Youth Entrepreneurship Drive, Ghana Skills and Enterprise Development Project, Student Entrepreneurship Initiative, the Youth in Community Improvement Module and the Alternative Employment and Livelihood programmes as direct interventions in targeted sectors to help our youth live decent lives and contribute to nation building,” he said.

He said these interventions were clearly designed to push the country closer to confronting the jobs and employment challenges of the youth.

According to him, participating institutions will, next month, sign an implementation compact on youth employment which will tie release of resources to delivery of results.

He said this compact will also track youth focused initiatives across the value chain of interventions under the GhanaCARES programme.

Mr Ofori-Atta observed that despite the generally strong performance of the country’s economy in recent decades, the issue of employment and jobs for the youth, who constitute close to 71 per cent of the population, persist.

This situation has been exacerbated by the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Taking the lesson from our recent past, we are deliberately intervening to avoid jobless economic growth and recovery.

At the strategic level, the minister stated that the government‘s comprehensive and holistic response to the employment and jobs issue remains anchored in the private sector.

He said it was for this reason that the government’s recovery programme and transformation agenda was easing the constraints of the private sector to enable them to expand and provide jobs for the youth.

“Mr Speaker, amid this promise from these efforts, we know that key obstacles still stand in the way of the private sectors’ growth and ability to absorb jobs.

“Prominent among these challenges is the persistent skills gap among the youth,” he said.

Recent survey

A recent survey indicated that about 50 per cent of local employers reported misalignment or inadequacy of skills in the market.

It also reported that at least 50 per cent of new tertiary institution entrants are enrolling in programmes in sectors with no or little growth in the labour market.

Mr Ofori-Atta observed that in response, the government was strengthening the links between education and job market stakeholders.

“We are also revitalising the skills development initiatives under the Ghana Enterprises Agency,the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP),the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) and the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET),” he added.