John Kumah is a deputy finance minister
•John Kumah says Ghana’s unemployment rate is on a consistent decline
•He believes government’s initiatives is a result of the decline
•Though unemployment still remains a challenge, John Kumah says government is posied to address the menace
A deputy finance minister, John Kumah has asserted that Ghana’s unemployment rate is on a consistent decline.
According to him, this is a testament to government’s resolve to ensure the rate is on a decline with its prudent policies to create jobs.
John Kumah speaking on Joy News monitored by GhanaWeb indicated that the World Bank for example has pegged Ghana’s unemployment rate at 7.2 percent from an initial 15.5 percent.
“It is not zero but we got the results. From 15.5 percent to about 7.2 percent. Check World Bank or data from wherever you want to check. From 2017 till today, there has been a consistent decline in the unemployment situation in Ghana,” he said.
Though the current figures look good, John Kumah admits that youth unemployment still remains a huge challenge but assures that the government is teeming up efforts to address the menace.
“We still have a high level of youth unemployment in the country. In 2017, it (youth unemployment) used to be 48 percent. According to the World Bank a lot of young people were looking for jobs. Today, the latest result in 2020 from the World Bank was 12.8 percent,” he pointed.
“We did NABCO, we took about 100,000 people off the street, we did Planting for Food and Jobs, millions of jobs were created in the private sector. We did the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation programme, and created about 100, 000 jobs. You had a problem of 48 percent, so today, if you are talking about 12 percent youth unemployment in the country, what does it tell you? It tells you that you have reduced the problem but you have not eradicated it,” Kumah explained.
He assured,“We will continue to open up the economy and create more economic opportunities for young people. But it is true that unemployment is going down.”
Meanwhile, the government is seeking to create some million jobs under the Ghana CARES programme primarily meant for the youth.
The programme is an ambitious GH¢100 billion initiative by the government to stabilize, revitalize and transform Ghana’s economy in a post COVID-19 era to create jobs and prosperity for Ghanaians over a three-year period.
The initiative is sequenced in two phases namely; a Stabilization Phase that runs from July to the end of the year (2020); and a medium-term Revitalization Phase from 2021-2023.