Almost two million youth in the country are not in education, employment or training (NEET), the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has found.

Its annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) indicates that in the third quarter of last year, 1.9 million youth in the country, aged 15 to 35 were NEET. Females constituted predominantly 1.2 million of the youth not in education, employment or training, compared with 715,691 males.

The number, however, represents a significant decline in the numbers as compared to the same period the previous year. In comparison with quarter three last year with the same period in 2022, NEET fell by 5.9 per cent from 24.1 to 18.2 per cent.

In all, the number of youth NEET decreased by almost half a million (462,998) over the period.

A Labour Economist at GSS, Anthony Oduro-Denkyirah, described the data as positive and expressed the hope that the trend would continue to reverse because, “at the least” it means that the youth have a source of living although not in any employment.

However, he said, the development did not mean there were employment avenues available to the youth. Within the context of NEET, Mr Oduro-Denkyirah said that could mean that some of them were engaged in what he described within the International Labour Organisation (ILO) context as “own use production work” which refers to activities performed to produce goods or services intended for final use by the producer, their household and/or family.

Economists caution

In spite of the drop in the numbers, two other economists have described the development as a warning signal which needs to be addressed urgently considering the threat it poses to the country.

Professor of Finance and Economics at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS), Professor Godfred Bokpin, and the Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), UG, Prof. Peter Quartey, in separate interviews with the Daily Graphic, said to have about two million of the youth not engaged in employment was not only a threat to national security, but one that could affect real growth rate of the economy.

To them, those were highly energetic young people whose contribution to the growth of the economy could be enormous when given the opportunity.

Prof. Bokpin said the situation was precarious, adding that although the Free Senior High School (FSHS) had helped, there was still far more room for improvement. He referenced studies by the Commonwealth which pointed to the worsening poverty levels in Ghana, most of which were youth; and the World Bank report which indicated that Ghana’s population was likely to balloon to about 45 million by 2040.

Prof. Bokpin said most frightening about the World Bank projections was that, about 55 per cent of the number would be youth below the age of 30 years.

The GSS report also pointed to an alarming widening of the gap between the ‘haves and the have-nots’ which also demonstrated the lack of effort on the part of policymakers to bridge that gap.

The Finance and Economics professor consequently called for deliberate policies within the real sectors of the economy to absorb the youth.

“We must be intentional with our spending in the real sectors. We require intentionality in programmes and policies that have higher income; and employment multipliers, one that is job-rich, with growth potential,” Prof. Bokpin added.

To him, by doing those and more with the youth in mind, the gap would be closed and the youth would not worsen their involvement in social vices. Prof. Quartey said much as the report was an improvement, it signalled to the nation a major problem which required urgent attention.

“To have two million of our youth unemployed is significant and means that we do not need to relax because these are very energetic young people whose energies can easily be channelled into production and not into social vices. Note that these youth can chase people around, just to take their mobile phones, and so on,” he warned.

To him, there are a myriad of policies that were directed at the youth, which lacked implementation and, therefore “we need to ensure that we implement the policies and programmes directed at the youth to make progress and cure the danger we see now, according to the report”.

Prof. Quartey mentioned agriculture, for instance, and stated that what could attract the youth even more into that sector was the use of technology and leveraging artificial intelligence.

Breakdown

The report said one in every three youth not in education, employment or training resided in the Greater Accra Region, with over half a million (565,360) youth not engaged in any of the three activities.

Four other regions besides Greater Accra also recorded youth NEET over 100,000: the Ashanti Region had (352,503), Central with (155,171), Eastern (143,601), and Western Region with (137,865).

The youth NEET rate of 21 per cent for females indicates six percentage points higher than for males (15 per cent). The Greater Accra Region had the highest NEET rate with a little over a quarter (26.9 per cent) of the population 15 to 35 years not engaged in education, employment or training.

The North East Region where 19.5 per cent of the youth are NEET was the second highest rate, with about one in five youth NEET.

All regions except Bono East 8.3 per cent had NEET rates in double figures. The NEET rate was higher for youth in urban areas; 20.6 per cent than for rural residents’ 15 per cent.

Between the third quarters of 2022 and 2023, the percentage of youth NEET declined in all regions, except in Greater Accra which experienced a marginal increase of 0.5 percentage points.

Greater Accra was the only region to record increases in youth NEET for both males and females within the period under consideration.

In the other 15 regions, youth NEET declined for both males and females except for Western which recorded a divergent trend by gender: a 5.9 percentage point decrease for males and a 0.3 percentage point increase for females.