According to the 2020 data released by the Ghana Statistical Service, 32.8 percent of Ghanaians aged 15 to 24 are unemployed.
With a population (15 to 24 years) of about six million in 2020, this brings the unemployment figure to about 1.9 million young Ghanaians.
This figure is likely to go up following the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite these scary statistics, the government is assuring Ghanaians that the implementation of the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) will be able to reverse the unemployment rate.
The assurance came when a government delegation led by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attah interacted with residents in the Volta Region during a town hall meeting in Ho.
The Executive Officer of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Pius Enam Hadzide said following vast consultations, it became clear that the 2022 Budget (aka Agyenkwa Budget) had no less than 13 interventions for the youth.
These interventions he said, had the potential to create employment for over a million young people should the e-levy be implemented.
Mentioning some of the initiatives in the budget, he said page 92, paragraphs 414 – 422, talked about the You-Start Initiative, page 88 paragraph 390 – 393 talked about the Development Bank of Ghana, page 187 paragraphs 978 talked about the Youth Connect Africa Program and page 144 which talked about One District One Factory (1D1F) were over 40 factories are reserved and implemented by young people below age 35.
Page 83 talked about Advancing Technological Capacity and Modernization of Agriculture while page 80 focused on Food Import substitution.
He, therefore, commended parliament, especially the 17 MPs from the Volta Region for approving the budget but hoped the e-levy will be approved to make life better for the youth.
“I thank the government and members of parliament, especially the 17 NDC MP’s from the Volta region, for thinking about the youth and passing the appropriation bill,” he said.
He acknowledged that despite the reduction of unemployment from 16.9 percent in 2015 to 12.6 percent in 2019 with private sector support, there is still massive youth unemployment.
Despite the government employing 300,000 in the public sector, it was not enough to absorb the 100,000 graduates that come out every year.
A lot has been done, but the long-term goal is to put together initiatives that empower the private sector to create more jobs. Thus have more entrepreneurs start their own ventures and existing businesses expand to recruit more.
“Thus, the government wants to turn the young Ghanaian job-seeker into a young Ghanaian job-giver… that is why 1 million youth between ages 15 and 35 are to be self-employed and employ others under the You-start Initiative within the next 3 years,” he noted.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta added that the You-Start policy will also train traders to give them access to capital for manufacturing to expand the industrial base and align the import substitution strategy with the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda.
Dr. Archibald Letsa, the Volta Regional Minister revealed that without the e-levy, various road projects in the region which have been earmarked in the 2022 budget for construction, could suffer delays.
The Minister for Railways Development, Mr. John-Peter Amewu justified the need for the introduction of the e-levy, saying, without money government can not provide development because “government does not grow money on trees to fund developmental projects.”
The Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah advised Ghanaians to ignore all the propaganda against the E-levy since the benefits of its implementation will reach every Ghanaian.
Meanwhile, many of the residents at the meeting still believe the current rate of E-levy is not reasonable, hence a 50% reduction may be acceptable.
From Fred Duodu, Ho (k.duodu@yahoo.com