2022 budget responds to calls for jobs - Oppong Nkrumah

The Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has stated that the 2022 budget statement and economic policy responds to concerns of youth unemployment in the country.

According to him, the spate of youth unemployment in the country, brought on by the coronavirus global pandemic, had compelled the government to propose policies that would create avenues for young men and women to find decent jobs in both the public and private sectors of the country.

He said this while contributing to the debate on the 2022 budget on the floor of Parliament last Tuesday.

Context

The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on November 17, 2021 presented the 2022 budget to Parliament. The budget, on the theme: “Building a sustainable entrepreneurial nation: fiscal consolidation and job creation”, emphasises a post COVID-19 economic recovery agenda, centred on youth entrepreneurship.

In line with that, the YouthStart initiative was announced in the budget as the vehicle for supporting young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training, technical skills and mentoring to launch and operate their businesses.

The initiative is expected to create some one million jobs and support young entrepreneurs to develop commercially viable businesses.

Economic growth

Mr Oppong Nkrumah said when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was leaving office in 2016, the growth had come to as low as 3.4 per cent.

“Until COVID-19 hit us, this government was growing the economy at an average of seven per cent on year on year. What that meant was that a lot of young people were getting jobs in the private sector.

“Additionally, even in the public sector, the Government of Ghana, under the leadership of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, ensured that at least about 300,000 young Ghanaians were recruited in the public sector both for those who are paid by the Controller and Accountant General and for those from the non-subvented agencies,” he stressed.

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IMF

The Minister of Information said the situation was different from the days Ghanaians were told that they could not be recruited into the public sector because of the bad economic situation necessitating the seeking of help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the goverment.

“But what is even exciting is that in this 2022 budget, this administration has made available GH¢1 billion to support young men and women who want to embark on their own business known as the YouthStart initiative. And so, Mr Speaker, the most important issue on the minds of Ghanaians is being answered by the 2022 budget,” he added.