Posted on:
www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw
Owusu
Friday,
November 18, 2016
President John Mahama has said that the
unemployment rate, especially among the youth, is high because many of the unemployed
graduates are not skilled, indicating that he is not a magician to put money in
their pockets.
The president, who said his government
has no magic wand to put money into people’s pockets, encouraged the youth to
take advantage of government’s numerous initiatives to make ends meet.
According to President Mahama, “The fact
of life is that you can only have money in your pocket if you work and earn it
and so there is no magic to put money into people’s pockets…That is why
government is investing as much as it is investing to try and provide our
people with the skills that they need to enter the world of work.”
He added, “If you sit at home and you
don’t take advantage of the opportunities, money is not going to magically
appear in your pocket…so what government is doing is investing to create the
situation so that as many of our people can take the opportunities as possible;
and we are doing this in all sectors.”
The president admitted making some
mistakes in his administration, but said those mistakes were done in ‘good
faith.’
He said his National Democratic Congress
(NDC) government had created many job opportunities but the jobs sector lacks skilled
Ghanaians to fill the vacancies.
“There is saturation in some professions
that the economy can take, so they won’t have ready jobs once they finish their
education,” President Mahama said when he took his turn at the televised 2016
Presidential Encounter hosted by Ghana
Television (GTV) on Wednesday
ahead of the December 7 general elections.
“Strangely, statistics have shown that
many skilled professionals, particularly in the health, education and other
services sectors, are currently struggling to find employment and the president’s
assertion appears to be a direct contradiction of what is on the ground,”
underscored a labour expert who did not want to be mentioned.
President Mahama used his personal
experience to encourage the youth to add value to their education so that they
become more employable on the job market.
He said he was a teacher before he
branched into Communication Studies after his first degree and noted that some
graduates need to weigh their interests in the job market vis a vis what is
available.
He tasked tertiary institutions to
introduce more guidance and counselling for young students to have a fair
understanding of the job prospects before graduation, adding that currently,
the economy is growing in areas like oil and gas, engineering, Information and
Communications Technology (ICT), and asked the youth to take advantage of the
opportunities in these sectors.
He described his term in office so far as
a “very challenging” one and assured that there were “brighter” days ahead.
He commented: “The critical challenge
that faces every leader today is the issue of creating jobs for young
people…we’ve had to make many very challenging decision points and I believe
that those decision points have been made in the interest of national progress
and development…you suffer to gain…you don’t get any good thing without
striving for it. We are going to take Ghana to the next level.
“The heavy lifting has been done. Over
the last four years we’ve done the heavy lifting. We’ve been involved in
building the foundation. These four years have been foundation laying…and I
believe that in my second term, there is not much heavy lifting to be done.”
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