Former President, John Agyekum Kufuor has asked unemployed graduates to devise innovative measures of generating income rather than relying on government for job opportunities.
Speaking at a programme dubbed “A Conversation on Leadership and the Future of Africa”, the former President said the growing demand for job opportunities by young graduates is making what he calls “office employment” scarcer. He therefore called on the youth to develop a “sense of enterprise” to address graduate unemployment in Ghana.
“We’ve come to a point where people think when you finish school there is a job for you to be employed. We need to change our mind and become venturesome. You have finished, you are graduate but if you do not get employment opportunities don’t sit and put your hands here like we say in traditional parlance.
“Find a way to keep afloat till when the employment comes along and this will mean a sense of enterprise. Don’t think of the big scale. Whatever little things you can do to keep yourself in decency because if you are not doing something sooner or later you will begin to degenerate and lose your dignity so even as we know the office employment is getting scarce and scarcer. There is still demand around so ask yourself what you can do until the office you are applying for calls you..”
Unemployment Ghana’s biggest problem – IEA
A recent survey conducted by the Institute of Economic Affairs, (IEA) identified unemployment as the foremost problem confronting the majority of Ghanaians today.
According to the survey, urban dwellers, females, and the majority of people living in the Western, Eastern and Central regions, identified unemployment as their biggest problem in Ghana.
The survey, conducted between November and December, 2015, sampled 1,500 respondents from across the ten regions of Ghana, who were 18 years of age, and above.
Ghana sitting on a timebomb
In 2015, the Institute of Statistical Social and Economic Research (ISSER) indicated that Ghana is sitting on a time bomb due to the growing unemployment rate in the country.
The ISSER indicated that about 200,000 unemployed graduates were in the country.
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