John Kumah
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ejisu, John Kumah, has said that about 42,000 employees lost their jobs during the partial lockdown of the Greater Accra Region and Kumasi alone last year.
According to him, the data was obtained from a survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank in November 2020.
Delivering a statement on the Floor of Parliament on Monday, the NPP MP indicated that a similar survey conducted by the Innovation for Poverty Action (IPA) in December 2020 also revealed that 34% of young people between the ages of 18-24 in Ghana had lost their source of livelihoods as a result of the pandemic.
“Mr. Speaker, indeed it is important to note that post the partial lockdown and thanks to the numerous interventions by government, especially through the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme and with support from the private sector, most of these lost jobs have been addressed with new source of hope, and new opportunities are being created to fill the losses,” he stated.
Mr. Kumah, however, called for the nation not to relent on the need to create more jobs and to establish the appropriate environment for businesses to be created and to survive.
“To achieve this, we must chart a new path on job creation in Ghana built on the back of the private sector,” the MP suggested.
According to him, it is the hope and aspirations of every graduate to work in the public sector because of the job security it offers and the opportunity to serve the country.
He said as much as this aspiration was noble and must be encouraged, “my plea to the teeming youth of this country who for a reason or the other could not find jobs in the public sector are to look to the private sector or venture to create their own businesses.”
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House