Youth representatives of the five main political parties in Ghana have articulated their party\u2019s plans and policies geared towards creating jobs to tackle the growing unemployment in the country, particularly among the youth, ahead of the November elections.<\/p>\n
The party reps agreed that many of the country\u2019s youth were wasting away because of unemployment and reiterated their parties\u2019 resolve to reduce the trend.<\/p>\n
The 5 were speaking at the second edition of the \u2018youth debate series\u2019 which was organized by the African Height Foundation with support from Open Society initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) and the Law Students Union of the University of Cape Coast (UCC).<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”jqyaHaSebyIfy8BJe5zMTIcVHKEWE4pd”]The debate, held at the University of Cape Coast in the Central Region over the weekend, discussed critical issues such as poverty reduction and economic development, right to education and skills training, energy and natural resources management, youth unemployment and corruption among others.<\/p>\n
Addressing a packed auditorium, the Greater Accra Youth Organizer of the governing National Democratic Congress (NCD), Godwin Tamakloe, said the incumbent government had created some jobs for the people of Ghana, and will create more given another term in office.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn order to create decent jobs, you engineer it through different sectors so that for instance if a government indicates that I am building two hundred community day secondary schools and it takes over twelve months to build one, remember that you need people to do that. You definitely need an architect, you need a quantity surveyor, you need all of these, that is how you create decent jobs. Beyond that, the national youth employment has employed over one hundred thousand people,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
The Head of programmes and events for the youth wing of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Boakye, also outlined how the biggest opposition party would create jobs when voted into power.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy party would formalize the economy by reducing corruption to its barest minimum. The manufacturing sector would be given tax incentives to companies that would import machines to set up.
\nJason Tutu, the head of Students Command of the Convention People\u2019s Party (CPP), Youth League, said a CPP government will make Ghana a productive economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the CPP takes over power, we will revert to what we call a productive economy by mechanizing agriculture to manufacture and produce rice from the three northern regions.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, the Central Regional Communications Director of the Progressive People\u2019s Party (PPP), Sunday Agyekum Atara Abraham, believes that in industrialization of the economy is one of the surest ways to create more jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have said industrialization is vital. We have a country where garbage is giving us cholera and other diseases. Go to China and Japan; those things give them electricity and bio-gas. We believe the will power of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom can change Ghana for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
On his part, a former Youth organizer of the People\u2019s National Convention (PNC), Abu Ramadan, said his party will create jobs through agriculture.<\/p>\n
\u201cDr. Edward Mahama is saying that the main area that would develop Ghana is agriculture which employs sixty percent of the workforce of this country. That is why he says the PNC would set up a Ghana Crop Authority in order to bring up the other smaller crops to the level of cocoa.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Debate<\/strong><\/p>\n The first debate took place on the 12th of March at the University of Development Studies (UDS) campus in Tamale.<\/p>\n The debate is being held in four major public universities namely the University for Development Studies Tamale campus, University of Cape Coast.<\/p>\n The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and the University of Ghana in Accra would have their sessions in August.<\/p>\n The Political Parties\u2019 Youth Debate Series will see the youth and female representatives of political parties in Ghana debating policies and issues in the run-up to the November 2016 elections.<\/p>\n This activity is meant to decentralize the concept of the presidential debates and provide a civil platform for political engagement for young and female politicians.<\/p>\n About African Heights Foundation<\/strong><\/p>\n The African Heights Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, based in Accra, Ghana, dedicated to using the tools of education, advocacy and civic participation to raise leaders and active citizens excelling in various sectors of society in Ghana and Africa.<\/p>\n The Foundation aims at strengthening democratic values and increasing citizens\u2019 participation in decision making processes and thereby contributing to improved policies and practices that affects people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n The President of African Heights Foundation, Dennis Armah, says the platform will serve as a medium for the youth to speak up and inform the political class \u201cwhat society we want to live in and hold them accountable when they deviate from that social contract\u201d.<\/p>\n He added, \u201cit aims at cultivating in the youth of Ghana improved civic participation, knowledge and attitudes, and the practice of critical and objective analysis of public issues as well as the effective use of freedom of expression and association to build more peaceful, tolerant and open societies in Ghana especially towards the 2016 elections.\u201d Youth representatives of the five main political parties in Ghana have articulated their party\u2019s plans and policies geared towards creating jobs to tackle the growing unemployment in the country, particularly among the youth, ahead of the November elections. The party reps agreed that many of the country\u2019s youth were wasting away because of unemployment and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":205993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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\nBy: Akwesi Koranteng\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"