Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, has urged fresh graduates from various universities to discover creative methods to become entrepreneurs.
That, he believes, is the only way to lessen the country’s increasing unemployment rate. That approach will help minimize over-reliance on the government for jobs, as well as reduce the burden on the government’s payroll.
Mr. Ofori-Atta, speaking at a graduation ceremony at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), highlighted that 60 percent of Ghana’s GDP is spent each month on paying public sector workers’ salaries.
“That payroll is full because we are spending some 60% of our revenue on remunerating some 650,000 people. That is not sustainable.”
He explained to the graduating students that: “…You have the skills set to be able to do what you have to do. Our responsibility as a government is to create the environment and the macro stability, currency stability and ensure that you have access to the relevant skills and financing.”
He also stated that the government is reorganizing its budget to focus on assisting young people in creating their jobs. According to him, the government is doing this through initiatives like the Ghana CARES program.
“This budget that we are going to be doing is going to really focus on the youth. We will have a programme in it looking at the youth and [their] demands and how we can structure… the Ghana Obaatanpa Programme [for the next two or three years] to ensure that the youth become their own bosses, and how to become entrepreneurs.”
Source: UPSA/Citi news room
