Like most other African countries, Ghana is still in the struggling mood with the unemployment situation. As a country in the 21st century, the utmost solution to this problem could mean better living conditions for the youth in the country as well as other people facing unemployment issues.
Every year, hundreds of graduates leave School in search of non-existing jobs, which has become one of the major challenges and disturbing phenomenon facing most young people in Ghana.
It is an undeniable fact that the issue of employment in Ghana remains a critical development issue. Unemployment in Ghana especially among the educated youth appears to have deepened despite consistent growth in the Ghanaian economy. For example, although Ghana has experienced an average economic growth in the last twenty years, unemployment continues to soar within the same period.
Reportedly, Ghana’s unemployment rate is expected to remain flat at 4.0% in 2024 and 2025, Fitch Solutions has stated in its Employment Outlook. This rate is the same as recorded in 2023. According to the UK-based firm, the unemployment rate if accompanied by easing inflation, will see a rise in real wages for many households.
During their 2019 plenary meeting at Elmina in the Cape Coast Archdiocese, the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference expressed worry about the steep rise in youth unemployment in the country describing it as “a veritable national security threat which has to be addressed immediately and urgently with a well-articulated programme.”
“We urge all stakeholders, the Government, Private Sector, Political Parties, Faith Based Organizations and Civil Society Organizations to treat the growing menace of joblessness among our youth as a national emergency and come up with practical and innovative solutions to relieve our young citizens of the lingering stress of persistent unemployment,” said the Bishops in a Communique issued at Cape Coast in 2019.
The Bishops noted, “The youth must take note of the changing times by being more creative and to explore the available opportunities to establish their own businesses to be self-employed.”
Many youth and even adults who perceive themselves to be in poverty had ranged high as promises are usually made by political parties to create adequate job within 100 days and make life meaningful to all and sundry even though it is not obvious for such promises to be fulfilled.
Since the coming of the fourth republican government system in Ghana, what have we seen and experienced? Youth and Graduate unemployment which can be said to be a phenomenon of job-seeking as a result of joblessness is one of the serious challenges undoubtedly facing Ghana today. The causes and effects of unemployment in Ghana have become national issues that need to be vehemently addressed.
While on an observation tour around the city of Accra and other parts of the streets of the country, you will see many young people ranging from the ages of five years to about 25 years selling all kinds of items and wares such as electronic appliances, plastic products, items of decoration, dog chains, newspapers, clothing’s, detergents, cold water, ice cream and those who carry luggage’s for fee (i.e. Female porters, popularly known as “kayayei”) and truck pushers.
Interestingly, the World Bank in its current report on jobs in Ghana has disclosed that about 48 percent of the youth in the country do not have jobs. The report further questioned the country’s preparedness in dealing with the youth bulge in the coming decades.
Role of the Catholic Church in Youth Development
Pope John Paul II, in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Africa noting the relevant role of the youth in Africa emphasized that, “The Church in Africa knows well that youth are not only the present but are the future of humanity. It is thus necessary to help the young people to overcome the obstacles thwarting their development: illiteracy, idleness, hunger, drugs… The pastoral care of youth must clearly be a part of the overall pastoral plan of Dioceses and Parishes, so that young people will be enabled to discover very early on the value of the gift of self, an essential means for the person to reach maturity…”(EIA 93).
In 2014, the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference issued Pastoral Guidelines to direct the Church on how to deal with the youth. Accordingly, the Bishops recommended that young people themselves should be called upon to become the evangelizers of their peers. No one can do this better than they themselves. They should gladly and readily take up leadership roles within their respective groups.
Given the fact that the youth form a majority of the Ghanaian population, particular Churches should take seriously the human and Christian formation of the youth to prepare them for life in the society which is marked by many religious persuasions. In this regard, the New Integrated Catholic Youth Formation Programme (NICYFOP) should be one of the basic tools in this preparation.
According to the Pastoral guideline, as much as possible, priests appointed as youth chaplains should be engaged full time in youth activities to make them available to the youth. It is sad that a majority of the youth are left unsupported to battle with the bitter challenges in their lives and thereby seek support elsewhere, which sometimes leads to their abandoning the Church.
Counselling opportunities should therefore be provided for the youth who are facing challenges in education, marriage, drugs and other socio-psychological issues. To cater for the special needs of children, the Ghanaian Bishops recommended that a Children’s Ministry be set up at the archdiocesan, diocesan and parish levels, with animators who are well disposed and trained for this important ministry.
With all these guidelines and good ideas from the Church in complementing the efforts of government, my concern as a youth advocate and a responsible citizen stems from increasing numbers of cities – Accra, Kumasi, Tema, Takoradi, Cape Coast and its environment and the most pathetic in the rural areas, the common spectacle hits my eyes from all angles and begin to doubt the fate of these people – the poor, the unemployed and underemployed. Many choose to sell on the streets and some into dubious acts such as armed robbery, stealing, smoking, drugs, prostitution, fraud “sakawa”, gabbling, and many others.
Lack of Education
Normally, one would be expecting these underprivileged to be in school or be attached to a master to learn trade or a vocation but disappointedly, it is not in the case of some ‘Street Vendors’ and the “Juvenile crime offenders”. It is disheartening to hear comments made by the unemployed precisely the street vendors of how they deliberately left their parents in the villages to make ends meet and to get “white Collar Jobs” in the cities. Some assert of “running away to escape ‘harsh’ treatment from parents and guardians or ‘forced’ marriages”.
Undoubtedly, these frustrations and disappointments might be part of the root cause of the persistent phenomenon of unemployment. Daring people are attracted by elusive promises of glory and luxury of city life leading to tend for themselves especially the female porters. Others who are determined to save money to learn a trade or vocation or further their education try to make good uses of the little they get for the day.
Too Much Political Talk
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) party in its 2024 manifesto promised to ease Ghana’s unemployment by creating millions of jobs if John Mahama is elected president in December 2024 while Ghana’s Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia who is leading the New Patriotic Party (NPP) promises to train 1,000,000 Ghanaian youth in digital skills.
What might be a bother to many Ghanaians especially the youth is whether day or night, economic situation whether good or bad, cedi stabilizes, inflation reduced, the situation faced by the unemployed remain the same since these political talks are not felt in the pocket of the ordinary Ghanaian.
As big government officials seat in their luxurious cars; the scorching sun, dust rain and night time does not offer any comfort but rather treat the poor youth badly and become a potential danger for them to “perch” at bus stops, around kiosks, in front of shops, under trees and by the road sides on pavements. The recent recruitment by the Ghana Immigration Service where over 15,000 people turned up to be screened for only 500 spots is indicative of the rate of unemployment in the country.
Minimum Requirement for Employment
Interestingly in Ghana, job applicants are asked to have a minimum of two or three years working experience. This is what usually and frequently appears in the advertiser’s column for applicants for vacant positions in many organizations and institutions. The question is who should train who for the experience or take the initiative to train fresh applicants so that at the end of the day, the company, which feels superior to others, come for these qualified applicants?
The decisions by many organizations and institutions have also rendered many-graduates jobless. Firms must not wait for someone to train people first, so that when such trainees have acquired the necessary experience, they come in for them. The concept of “WHOM YOU KNOW’ but not “WHAT YOU KNOW OR WHO YOU ARE” had really itched into the system.
Over the years, governments of the day, as a campaign promise to create job opportunities, open the register for the unemployed and many have registered and what next? The ministry of youth and sports had focused on only sports leaving the youth in dilemma that is why I readily share the idea with the Ghana United Nations Students Association (GUNSA), who once called on the government to create a separate “Ministry of Youth Affairs” from that of Sports because it looked as if more attention is given to sports to the detriment of the welfare and plight of the youth unemployed and poor.
As the 2024 elections get nearer, attention will be focused on the spate of vigilantism, robbery and kidnapping. This heinous activities may be linked up to the rate of unemployment and underemployment in the system where the perpetrators do not have the right satisfaction on the money they get.
In an era of political change and while we prepare for the December 7, 2024 elections, Ghana should never nurture indiscipline but find a better way of solving the unemployment situation in country.
By Damian Avevor
