An economist, Dr. William Baah Boateng has warned that the high rate of joblessness will continue to persist if Ghana continues to manage its economy based on annual budget that emphasizes revenue and expenditure.
He suggested that in place of the annual budget and the many employment policies various governments have put in place, a national, bi-partisan, 20-year blueprint should rather be drawn.
“Employment is not an end in itself; employment is a function of economic activities in a country…so you may have employment policies nicely but if the entire economy does not have a blueprint as to where we are going, the situation will still persist.
[contextly_sidebar id=”FBIKnr3gEG6Ke0PFcyW8j1cllXMeTZiQ”]“As a country, we should sit down and have a blue print; a bi-partisan kind of blue print that will show us a vision but we don’t have that,” he recommended.
Presently, there are over 200,000 unemployed graduates in Ghana with many more unemployed citizens in the informal sector.
The Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has therefore warned that the nation is sitting on a time bomb and thus, there is urgent need to rectify the situation.
In February this year, Parliament passed the Youth Employment Agency Bill, which is expected to create employment for about 100,000 Ghanaian youth.
But according to Dr. Baah Boateng, with the existing socio-economic challenges and the stringent measures adopted by government following the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout programme, unemployment cannot be solved.
He explained that the IMF is only interested in the monetary aspect of the economy ‘so they are coming in to help you balance your books and ensure that your balance of payment position is correct so they are not interested in the real sector of the economy,” while the government is looking at the credibility the nation’s economy will receive with the IMF bailout.
“That is the only thing I see about the IMF but I think that it is not something that is going to help the real sector which is growth and employment…it will not trickle down to employment,” he remarked.
The economist further stated that the many taxes the government has introduced is burdening private sector which is now unable to expand to absorb the unemployed youth who cannot get into the public sector due to the embargo placed on employment.
He advised that “if you are in a recession, that is not when you tax people; the same people who continue to pay the direct tax and therefore you don’t expect that these people will also go and increase consumption and help you stimulate the economy…Private sector is not expanding and public sector employment is not going up.”
Dr. Baah Boateng criticized governments for instituting policies without considering the context within which the policies will be implemented, adding that, “sometimes when there is a problem coming from the demand side of the economy, you see policy makers using supply side solution to solve demand side problem.”
This, he noted will continue making joblessness a major problem in the country.
“We are having many people entering the labour market but we don’t have policies to be able to absorb them into employment and I think we need to sit up. We need to come up with short-term, medium-term and long-term policies.
“The politicians themselves know that this is important…so far as we continue to manage our economy based on annual budget…everyday, we will come and talk and when we continue to talk, we will get frustrated.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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