NaBCo not solution to job creation— Ishmael Yamson to govt

The Chairman of Ishmael Yamson and Associates, Dr Ishmael Yamson, has charged the government to look at a more innovative ways of creating employment in the country because the Nation Builders Corps programme is not sustainable.

Although he agreed the idea to engage the young graduates was a good one, he said that was only a short-term measure. He, therefore, urged the government to look at putting in place long-term measures to address the unemployment situation in the country.

Dr Yamson said that when he was interacting with the media ahead of a round-table conference being organised by his firm this week.

He said for the government to be able to create sustainable jobs and come out of poverty, the country’s economy had to be growing at a consistent rate of at least eight per cent for the next 10 to 15 years.

“Not this zigzag growth today three per cent, tomorrow four per cent. It will not do it. We need to say consistently, we will grow at say 8 per cent for a period. We must do everything possible to achieve it,” he noted.

“The government must also move away from old policies in order to create the needed jobs. Most of these policies are short-term measures, which have been tried in the past but couldn’t solve our problems,” he added.

He said the issue of job creation for the youth was a critical security matter that could get out of hand if not properly managed.

“Security is very important. All these young people in the country searching for jobs must be given an opportunity. They become a threat to the security if the environment is not favourable for them to create their own jobs,” he warned.

Round table dialogue

Dr Yamson pointed out that its fifth business round-table dialogue would bring together business executives, stakeholders, policymakers and non-governmental organisations (NGO) to discuss current issues that serve as potential indicators of how the country’s economy was faring and what could be done to better the economy.

He said the event, which is on the theme ‘Ghana, in search of prosperity’, would enable participants to explore ways by which the country could maintain its strong economic performance and how to better it.

He said the discussions would be centred on five key areas, which include good corporate governance, national and enterprise level competitiveness as drivers for creating prosperity, leveraging the power and potential of Ghana’s human capital, social mobility and stability, as well as security.

“We need people to understand the current and emerging issues and opportunities of Ghana’s economy and the impact of these on us. The country must come to appreciate the consequence that will come with failing to provide prosperity for its people,” he said.

“We also need to as a country, identify available opportunities to drive the national economic transformation, increase enterprise level growth and create widespread prosperity,” he added.

Speakers at the event will include the Senior Vice-President of the African Development Bank Group, Mr Charles O. Boamah, the Group Chief Executive Officer at Databank Asset Management Services Ltd, Mr Kojo Addae-Mensah, a Security Analyst, Mr Kwesi Anning, and former Governor of the bank of Ghana, Dr Paul Acquah.