Every parent’s crushing nightmare
How refreshing to learn that a government minister is now making a case for private industry to offer employment to the youth! Officials have been stoutly promoting the line that school-leavers are not to rely on the government or anybody else for employment. Instead, they are to go into self-employment.
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And it’s no less a person than the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Haruna Iddrisu, signalling this new, positive development.
Mr Iddrisu was reported in the media as saying that the private sector should do more to help address Ghana’s youth unemployment crisis. The Minister was speaking at a workshop on ‘Enabling youth potential in Ghana’, organised by the World Bank in Accra last week.
Referring to the high unemployment rate, he expressed concern that with a population of more than 24 million people, the private sector employs only 700,000 people. Without a comprehensive approach to deal with youth unemployment, the situation could pose a threat to national security, Mr Iddrisu warned.
However, the security threat is not the only problem. Obviously, apart from a ward’s distress and frustration, an unemployed school-leaver in the home, after all the sacrifices made to ensure their successful completion, is what every parent or guardian dreads, a crushing nightmare.
If the private sector is now seen as important in employment-generation, it implies that the Government will be taking steps to make the sector strong again in order to realise that objective. Thus, I find the Minister’s views heartening.
It has always seemed a strange approach to me that instead of helping the private sector to thrive and ease the unemployment crisis, we have heard much about school-leavers jumping into self-employment virtually directly from the classroom.
For example, Deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, is on record as having told graduates of polytechnics to “consider creating their own jobs and stop depending on government for employment and survival.”
How many school-leavers say goodbye to classrooms or lecture halls immediately equipped to establish their own enterprise? There may be a few geniuses, but I believe that the vast majority will need to work under others to acquire expertise and experience.
A business plan may look fantastic on paper; the youth about to launch a venture may appear to have all the answers. But there’s a vast difference between theory and practical, as anyone who has ever gone into business of any kind can testify. And what about the big ‘E’, the ‘E’ word: EXPERIENCE?
It’s not for nothing that job advertisements emphasise that the applicant should have experience, sometimes of three or even five years, in a similar job or position. And if experience is considered so vital in establishments where the new employee would be working under others, how much more when that young person is to be in charge?
Factors hindering the sustainability of private industry need to be tackled with urgency and much more commitment so that the sector can employ more people. And the obstacles are known.
Just last week on May 12, Graphic Business reported that the Institute of Chartered Economists of Ghana has warned that multiple taxes are killing businesses. The Institute’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Daniel Anim, called on the Government “to lessen the (tax) burden on businesses and create more job opportunities”. The Institute also underscored the need to reassess the taxes on petroleum products.
The Association of Ghana Industries and other stakeholders have also been quite vocal. There have been many pleas to the Government to initiate measures to resuscitate collapsed or collapsing businesses.
Despite the official stance that the economy is sound and business is thriving, there have been reports that some enterprises have moved to neighbouring countries where they find the business climate more favourable.
Recently, the Tema Regional Officer of the Industrial and Commercial Union, Eleazer Nyaunu, told the Business Guide newspaper that many companies are relocating to neighbouring countries as a result of the high cost of doing business in Ghana.
The escalating cost of doing business in this country, includes of course, ever-rising utility bills. Even when the cheaper household water and electricity bills are unbearable, how much more those having to pay commercial rates at a time when business is far from booming?
Currently the desperation among the ranks of the unemployed youth is reflected in the long queues of would-be police enlistment applicants at branches of the GCB Bank, waiting to buy the online application vouchers. Some spent more than two days in a queue before getting the precious voucher, some reportedly leaving home as early as 4 a.m. daily.
Indeed, although the vouchers were to be made available from Wednesday, May 11, even on Monday, May 9, hordes of young people were seen at the GCB Bank’s head office on the High Street, Accra.
Incidentally, prior to the Iddrisu plea, President John Mahama was reported as promising “more jobs for the youth since the short-term economic environment of the country looks brighter”. Addressing students of Cape Coast University, as part of his ‘Accounting to the people’ tour of the Central Region, the President said that the positive development would translate into jobs and prosperity for the youth (Daily Graphic May 7).
Going by the President’s assurances at Cape Coast University and the Minister’s appeal, is there now a shift in the official position? If so, thank God!
But what has influenced this seeming change of official attitude? An observer provided a one-word answer: “elections!”
Nevertheless, hopefully there’s new thinking, reflecting a genuine determination to assist the private sector pragmatically as an effective strategy to tackle unemployment. It shouldn’t be mere ‘political talk’ with an eye on Election 2016 votes.
The Columnist is a writer for The Mirror