Former President John Mahama has called on the government to look at other avenues to provide jobs for the unemployed youth.
Speaking at a public lecture to mark the end of his ‘Thank You’ tour on Wednesday, he referred to the government’s ways of providing employment like the implementation of NABCo as unsustainable and ad-hoc.
“Unemployment continues to plague our country and it is clear this government has no sustainable plan to address it. The botched NABCO experiment has proven not to be the pathway and the means to an end. We need to come together and face youth unemployment head-on,” he said.
Mr Mahama stated that unemployment has become a national security crisis which requires an immediate resolution.
This comes after thousands of Ghanaian youth trooped to various centres to participate in a documentation and medical screening exercise for recruitment into Ghana’s security services.
The young job seekers anticipate their enlistment into the military, Fire Service, Prisons Service and the Ghana Immigration Service will end the long period of being unemployed.
Mr Mahama stated that it is heartbreaking and deeply disturbing to see tens of thousands of frustrated and desperate young men and women, running and falling over themselves to apply for very limited positions in security agencies.
He stated that “the government’s approach [to unemployment] has been one of nonchalance and the bandying about of dubious employment creation figures.”
Proffering solutions to help reduce unemployment he stated that “the NDC’s one million (Edwumapa) Jobs Creation Plan, the free TVET and National Apprenticeship Programme as contained in our manifesto are still relevant and available for this government to draw on for implementation. If well implemented, we can create an average of 250,000 jobs every year for the youth of Ghana.”
Mr Mahama urged the government to further reduce the burden of unemployment by taking the opportunity to lessen the tax burden on small and medium scale businesses in the 2022 budget.
“They must be allowed to grow to become more innovative and expand their employment generation capacity,” he added.