Holistic and strategic approach needed to curb unemployment menace – Economist

An economist at the University of Ghana’s Department of Economics, Dr. Priscilla Twumasi-Baffour has called for a rather holistic and strategic approach to be used in dealing with the country’s unemployment menace.

According to her, government agencies overseeing the rate of unemployment in the country must harmonise efforts to tackling the issue hands-on.

Making her submission on the Newsfile segment on JoyNews, Dr Priscilla Twumasi-Baffour said, “in the employment generation area, one thing that it is lacking is for us to harmonise all the activities that are going on in there because you tend to find that a lot of agencies are doing a number of things.

“We need to have a harmonious programme that is looking at youth employment. And for every activity that government is engaged in, I think that we should be intentional about the number of jobs that are created within that activity,” she explained.

Meanwhile, the finance minister in presenting the 2021 mid-year budget review announced a government initiative to create one million jobs for the youth over the next three and half years.

The initiative, Ken Ofori-Atta said will fall under the GH¢100 billion GhanaCARES ‘Obaatanpa’ Programme.

“Our strategy to place the private sector at the heart of this endeavour is to accelerate competitive import substitution and export expansion to generate sustainable jobs for our teeming youth (under 35 years), who make up about 71% of the population.”

“The unemployment situation in our country has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a situation which we will confront aggressively. Indeed, it is an issue that will be at the forefront of our national discourse,” he explained.