Sustainable growth, answer to unemployment - AGI
THE high unemployment rate in the country will reduce if industries experience sustainable growth, the President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr James Asare-Adjei, has stated.
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He said such growth was particularly crucial in the private sector as it was the vehicle through which the country could achieve development.
“An estimated 90 per cent of our economically active population is employed by the private sector and it is for this reason that the sector deserves government support to expand,” Mr Asare-Adjei stated.
Mr Asare-Adjei was speaking at the 5th AGI Ghana Industry Awards held at the State House in Accra last Saturday.
The event, which was on the theme: “Growing Local Industry for Export Development and Job Creation,” was also used to honour companies which had performed excellently in various sectors.
Collapse of industries
The AGI President decried the collapse of various companies due to bad policies of successive governments and the seemingly lack of pragmatic initiatives to address them.
“A couple of years ago, the once vibrant sectors of manufacturing such as textiles, aluminium, vehicle assembly, glass manufacturing and the processing of agricultural products such as meat, sugar, tomatoes and citrus have all collapsed.
“Industry continues to shrink and we risk losing our industrial base if government policies do not address our challenges to revive the industrial sector,” he indicated.
Mr Asare-Adjei added that the difficulties in the private sector was inimical to the country’s development, especially in its ability to provide sustainable jobs for the numerous unemployed graduates.
“Indeed, many of our school leavers spend longer times looking for jobs than the time they spent pursuing courses while at the tertiary institutions,” he claimed.
Stakeholders
The position of the AGI follows calls by other stakeholders in that direction.
The Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC), for instance, has urged political parties to refrain from making mere electioneering promises of addressing unemployment and rather come up with strategies to address the problem.
According to the labour union, unemployment is a matter of national security as jobs make people more productive and less inclined to engage in activities that will threaten the country’s peace.
Stability
The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Dr Abdul-Nashiru Isshaku, said 2015 was a challenging year for the country’s economy due to macroeconomic instability on businesses as a result of domestic and external factors.
He, however, indicated that “the central bank and the government have through effective measures been able to stabilise the situation.
“Indeed, the business community will acknowledge that from the beginning of this year, there has been stability in all the relevant economic indicators due to prudent measures instituted by the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance. We are confident that the stability will be long term,” Dr Isshaku stated.
Commendation
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Murtala Mohammed, commended the AGI for its immense contribution to policy formulation which had helped in shaping the country’s development.
He added that the government would continue to work with the association because “it recognises the significant roles that it plays in addressing unemployment in the country.”
Awards
Pioneer Food Cannery picked the Overall Best Company award, while Jospong Group won the Best Employer award.
Other awardees were the Accra Brewery Limited, Vodafone Ghana, Stanbic Bank, Blue Skies Limited, CFAO Ghana Limited, Tropical Cable and Conductor Limited, Nallem Clothing and Holiday Inn.
The rest were Tullow Oil Ghana Limited, Wire Weaving Limited, Dannex Limited, Unilever Ghana Limited, B5 Plus Limited, Qualiplast Limited, Adwinsa Publications, Sekaf Ghana Limited and Invest in Africa Limited.