An agricultural economist and lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Dr. Amos Mensah, has urged the government to provide an enabling system to curb the growing youth unemployment situation in the country.
Speaking at the YAFO Institute’s Policy Dialogue Series dubbed “Ghana’s Unemployment Challenge: Creating a Supportive Ecosystem for Entrepreneurs and Retaining Talents for Development,” Dr. Mensah averred that although Ghana’s has relatively positive macroeconomic indicators, they do not translate into reducing unemployment.
Dr. Mensah, who was the main speaker for the webinar, distinguished between GDP and GNP, explaining the difference as the contribution of Ghanaian citizens to economic growth.
“When we talk about GNP, we are talking about the Gross National Product. In this case, we are looking at the contribution of citizens to what is produced within the country. GDP, on the other hand, looks at what is produced within Ghana, including the contribution of foreign entities,” he explained.
According to him, after the relevant statutory deductions are made, most foreign entities return the revenue they have made in Ghana to their home countries.
“If you take the petroleum sector from upstream to downstream, through exploration and extraction, what is the percentage that is owned by Ghanaians? Those percentages that are owned by Ghanaians are not significant in terms of value. So if a huge percentage of the oil sector is owned by foreigners, then your GDP may be growing, but it may not necessarily translate into employment creation and better health systems because, at the end of the day, those foreign companies need to repatriate those funds.”
Dr. Mensah observed that despite Ghana’s increasing population over the years, the resources at the country’s disposal keep dwindling due to the exploitation of existing resources, resulting in higher unemployment levels.
“Our land mass is the same; the resources are dwindling, but the population has increased. As the population is increasing, we are extracting more from our natural resources to get more money, but we have not been able to use that money to generate enough employment opportunities in terms of the public or private sector to absorb the youth that are in the working class.”
The academic stated that the country is presently bereft of skilled labour, with most of the potentially skilled workforce leaving the country after completing tertiary education.
He argued that there is a “mismatch between what the new economy is demanding to fill those spaces and generate more jobs, compared with what the current Ghanaian educational system is producing.”
He noted further that those who possess the requisite skills and expertise and are employed as managers and supervisors do not use their skills to increase productivity in order to reduce unemployment.
“What we realise in Ghana and Africa is that people use their skills to produce a nonproductive economy. They use their skills to inflate figures; they use their skills to steal; they use their skills to bully and monopolise; they use their skills to show off and not to create news things to make the company, public or private, more productive,” he said.
Dr. Mensah also identified structural challenges as the primary reason for unemployment in Ghana, especially among entreprenueurs.
“We need certain basic infrastructure that needs to work in order to get entrepreneurs to prosper.”
He said that the country’s economy is having some serious structural challenges in the areas of infrastructure and the policymakers themselves, in terms of a lack of effective collaboration for private sector growth.
He bemoaned the regulatory complexities associated with registering businesses and obtaining certification for specialised products and services, hindering rather than helping the growth of businesses in Ghana.
Dr. Mensah explained that although the country’s economy is fundamentally resource-based, the extractive industry, which comprises the oil and gas industry, employs only a handful of people with specialised skills, hence contributing to the unemployment numbers, while the agricultural sector has not been modernised to attract the youth.
He criticised the government’s efforts to curb unemployment so far, stating that they have been either poorly coordinated or poorly implemented, although they looked great on paper.
“A typical example of NABCO being one of the most wasteful policies. What did NABCO achieve? NABCO did not actually even have the opportunity to train somebody for that person to be retained because of the political undertones… recruiting people based on political party affiliation.”
“We have a lot of corruption and cronyism in those areas, so nobody is actually monitoring who needs to be where and how we are monitoring these things,” he said.
In addressing the unemployment challenge, Dr. Mensah urged the provision of flexible financing options for innovative startups.
At the same time, he charged entrepreneurs and startups to have a payback plan and structure for financing from various sources, including friends and family, in order to attract the much-needed support.
“We have this gap where there is no access to finance, but those that have access to finance also abuse the opportunity, thus preventing the same support from being extended to others who need it,” he clarified.
Additionally, he encouraged the establishment of incubation centres across the country to nurture inexperienced entrepreneurs in the nascent stages of business.
He asked the government to abolish nuisance taxes and levies, as they don’t augur well for the growth of business, while condemning the “extortionist” approach various government agencies adopt in their interactions with businesses.
Panellists Precious Mondial and Asamoah Kwaku Junior, both Policy Scholars at the YAFO Institute, analysed how corruption, conflict of interest, and partisan politics have collectively derailed government initiatives aimed at curbing unemployment, such as the diverse Private Public Partnerships (PPP), the YouStart Initiative, and Planting for Food and Jobs, among others.
On the exodus of professionals to other countries, Dr. Mensah argued that labour is one of the most mobile factors of production, adding that people would ordinarily move to where their skills are needed.
He lamented the different forms of barriers professionals have to go through in order to secure a job in Ghana, including the payment of bribes.
Those who cannot afford to pay such monies will deem the environment punishing them for excelling in school rather than supporting them with a post-school job offer, according to him.
“The best brains in Ghana are leaving in their masses because we decided to punish them by not giving them a position, but the foreign countries see their talent and see their position and immediately employ them.
He believes that brain drain can be stopped if the corruption associated with filling positions and roles in the country stops.
Dr. Mensah further stated that although there are opportunities for Ghanaians in the diaspora in Ghana, an enabling environment has to be created for their stay.
“There is this burning desire among Ghanaians in other countries to want to come to Ghana to contribute [their quota], he added.
The webinar was moderated by the President of YAFO Institute, Nathaniel Dwamena.
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