Kwadwo Agyekum pledges jobs for youth through labour export

The Minister of State in charge of Special Initiatives, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum, has said if given the opportunity, he will prioritise the creation of jobs for the teeming population, particularly the youth across the country. 

He said he would achieve this through labour export where young people would be trained in various skills, professions and industries and sent to other countries that needed the workers to earn revenue for Ghana, stressing that such initiatives were earning other nations more revenue than Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

“We have three batches of nurses at home without jobs and we need to give them some. What a lot of Ghanaians, especially the young people, expect from us now is to give them solutions and the key solution they want is for us to get them jobs,” he said.

“We are going to train young people in Ghana on specific skills and send them out somewhere to go and work if the President gives me the opportunity to take care of it. It is something simple and most countries are making money out of labour exports more than FDIs,” Mr Agyekum said during his vetting process before the Appointments Committee last Tuesday. 

No brain drain

Mr Agyekum, who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Nkoranza South, further assured the committee that training the youth and sending them to other countries to work would not cause a brain drain and negatively affect the nation.

Rather, he said such an approach would be of immense benefit to the country as the government would be earning revenue from such professionals as they embarked on various employment activities in their destination countries.

When asked if he would continue or eliminate projects such as the “One Village, One Dam” and the “One District, One Factory” which were deemed special under the immediate past New Patriotic Party government, the Nkoranza South MP responded; “I think it’s the decision of the President. I do not have those powers to say if I’ll either continue or terminate those projects.”

Women’s bank, affirmative action

Mr Agyekum also stated that if tasked to work on the Women’s Development Bank as envisioned by the governing National Democratic Congress 2024 manifesto, he would prioritise it in a manner that all women irrespective of their geographical location or political affiliation would be beneficiaries.

Furthermore, he said he would inculcate the tenets of the Affirmative Action Act which, among others, required at least 30 per cent female participation in all aspects of society, in any project he was tasked to oversee.