By William Yaw
Owusu
Tuesday, April
26, 2016
The Ministry of Communications has made a sensational claim that the
Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has created over
600,000 jobs, in spite of widespread public concerns about the lack of
employment opportunities in the country.
According to a statement signed by the Communications Minister, Dr
Edward Omane Boamah, the Mahama administration has been the biggest job creator
in the history of the country. It said more people had been employed in the
various sectors since 2013, despite the ever-soaring unemployment rate
particularly among the youth.
However, a deputy Communications Minister, Ato Sarpong, has disputed
the figure put out by his boss, saying that he could not quantify the jobs the
government had created.
Mr Ato Sarpong conceded that he did not know how many jobs the
government had created, even though several interventions had been put in
place.
While Omane Boamah pegged employment opportunities at 600,000, NDC
National Youth Organiser Sidii Abubakar, just last week on a radio discussion
programme, said the Mahama administration had created 200,000 jobs since
assumption of office, raising questions about the conflicting figures, which
political pundits claim are a mere propaganda.
Graduate unemployment is all-time high, with unemployed graduates
forming an association to raise concerns about their plights.
In the face of these harsh realities, the Minister of State at the
Presidency, Rashid Pelpuo, had rhetorically asserted that job opportunities
existed in the stone cracking business where unemployed youth could go picking
stones and selling them for a living or engage in the cutting of grasses for
animal livestock.
Contradictions
The government’s latest employment figures contradict what then
deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, once said during the
President Mills/Mahama administration to the effect that it (administration)
had created 1.6 million jobs within the short period in office.
Ironically, when then Employment and Labour Relations Minister E.T.
Mensah was asked about the 1.6 million jobs at a news conference, he directed
journalists to ask Ablakwa where the jobs were.
Economic Expansion
Dr Omane Boamah’s statement maintained that Ghana’s economy was
expanding rapidly and as a result, more jobs were coming in both the formal and
the informal sectors, especially when the Metropolitan, Municipal and District
Assemblies (MMDAs) completed different projects and implemented new
interventions.
According to the statement, between 2013 and 2015, the government,
through the Export Trade Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund,
supported local industries with GH¢245.4 million, saying, “This amount funded
over 125 different projects in the pharmaceuticals, rice, sheanut, poultry and
textiles industries, among others.”
It said the Skills Development Fund, implemented by COTVET,
disbursed a total of GH¢150 million to 654 businesses, which in turn trained
93,600 people in vocational and technical skills and that a total of 43,485
businesses also received support under the fund.
The printing and distribution of over 100 million exercise books
under the free exercise books initiative, the statement indicated, had created
jobs since 2010 and added that the GH¢100 million worth of contracts for local
printing of textbooks for schools would in addition create jobs for 4,000
people.
The statement also said the distribution of over two million school
uniforms under the Free School Uniforms Programme had also created thousands of
jobs, while 69 companies established under the Free Zones Board had created
16,372 jobs.
It said Youth in Agriculture programme employed 23,000 youth in
2013, bringing the total number of young farmers in the programme to 81,150,
while the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), Integrated Community
Centres for Employable Skill (ICCES) and Opportunities Industrialisation
Centres (OICs) had created 21,802 jobs.
It further said the Graduate Business Support Scheme run by the
Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations had engaged 2,000 people while the
Department of Cooperatives registered a total of 1,757 youth co-operatives in
10 regions, with a total of 34,657 jobs created.
“The Rural Enterprise Project created 21,045 jobs across the country
between 2013 and 2015; GRATIS foundation under the Ministry of Trade and
Industry also created 500 jobs through the production of over 1,000
agricultural implements,” the statement added.
It said over 190,607 people had benefited from the Micro Finance and
Small Loan Centre (MASLOC) between 2010 and 2015 and that it had distributed
953 vehicles for commercial transport and 25 tractors for agricultural use,
among others.
The statement said state-controlled companies like Kumasi Shoe
Factory (GIHOC) had created 200 jobs; Ghana National Gas Processing Plant – 265
jobs; the Oil and Gas Sector – 7,000 since 2010 while the sheanut processing
plant at Buipe had 50 permanent staff and 2,000 sheanut pickers.
It said the Youth Entrepreneurial Agency (YEA) was in the process of
employing a minimum of 100,000 youth under different modules while the Business
Process Outsourcing Centre near the Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, Accra, had been
completed and would create 10,000 direct and indirect jobs, with another IT
Enabled Services Centre at the Tema ICT Park in the Free Zones Enclave already
employing about 250 people.
It further said the Komenda Sugar Factory would create 7,300 direct
and indirect jobs – even though there is no sugar plantation anywhere near the
catchment zone – the new fish processing factory at Elmina would create 2,500
direct and indirect jobs and both Tema and Takoradi Harbours expansions would
create 3,000 jobs.
“Over 400,000 professionals such as architects, engineers, quantity
surveyors, masons, carpenters, welders, steel benders, electricians and
painters, among others, are currently employed at various sites where direct
government investment in the construction of hospitals, roads, schools, water,
energy, housing and market projects are underway,” according to the statement.
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