Ghana – CEDI Ghana Fights Poverty, Unemployment

The Community and Entrepreneurial Development Initiative (CEDI Ghana), a group of university lecturers and top government officials on Thursday 17th of August,  held an advocacy forum at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Accra to help address poverty and unemployment in Ghana.

The one-day International Symposium was under the theme, “Youth unemployment: A call for industrialization”. The event was attended by diplomats (high commissioners/ambassadors), government ministers, academicians and business experts.

Mr. Pinkrah Kwaku Kingsley, CEO of CEDI Ghana said, the main cause of graduate unemployment in Ghana has been the rapid growth of populations. “Today, universities and polytechnics churn out thousands of graduates who cannot be absorbed into the job market”.
He said this leads many to armed robbery, prostitution and other social vices disturbing the public peace.

The 2015 Ghana Labour Force Survey Report stated that, more than 1.2 million people from 15 years and above are estimated to be unemployed representing the total unemployment rate of 11.9%.
Of this number, about 714,916 are females representing 57.2 % and 535,997 are males representing 42.8%. In the area of education, the unemployment rate was relatively higher for persons with education than those with no education which those with tertiary education accounted the highest unemployment rate in the country.

According to the World Bank 2016 Report, 48% of the Ghanaian youth were estimated to be jobless. Report also issued by the Unemployment Graduates Association of Ghana (UGAG) confirmed that, as at August 2016, the association has registered about 600,000 graduates with a potential for more as 70,000 graduates are produced annually by the country’s tertiary institutions.

Senior Minister, Hon. Yaw Osafo Maafo reiterated government’s commitments to creating jobs; he said government has made a number of provisions in the 2017 Budget to kick start some of these programmes and projects.

The minister cited an example under the sowing seeds for growth and job creation policy, “We propose 30,764 youth in 154 rural communities in Climate Change intervention, train 40,000 youth in cocoa farming, 50,000 youth in rehabilitation, replanting, mass spraying and fertilizer application, create 750 jobs from fisheries nucleus out growers scheme, employ 30,000 youth from COCOBOD pollination project, create 350,000 direct and indirect jobs, provide 216 factories under the One District One Factory programme. The One Village One Dam program is expected to support agricultural production”.

He added that the National Entrepreneurship Programme and Innovation Program (NAIP) tax rebate and excise duty and levies reduction and many others are initiatives to boost job creation by the private sector.

The International Symposium was attended by diplomats (high commissioners/ambassadors), government ministers, academicians and business experts under the theme, “Youth unemployment: A call for industrialization”.

Source – Fernilnews.com