The next government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) would create employment opportunities for the many unemployed Ghanaian youth, a former Trade Minister has said.
Highlighting the jobs and industry policies of the NPP’s 2016 manifesto, Alan John Kyeremanten says they are alarmed at the challenges in the economy necessitated by the misjudgment of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and would do everything to fix them.
He cited a portion of World Bank’s report which says about 48 percent of Ghanaians between the ages of 25 to 64 years are unemployed to press home the need to put in place urgent measures to curb the situation.
Mr Kyeremanten says it is regrettable that professionals like nurses and teachers who had employment upon completion of their education during the erstwhile President John Kufuor government are unemployed.
“The high level of unemployment is the most challenge” in the country, he said.
The former Minister who spearheaded massive investment in textile and garments, cassava, salt and palm oil resulting in ready markets globally for the products said the NPP will put in place the right framework for businesses to expand.
Mr Kyeremanten said they will work with industries to ensure they access soft loan, reduce taxes and invest in skills training that will benefit small businesses and startups.
To respond to the long term fundraising challenge of entrepreneurs in Ghana, he said the NPP will setup a development fund which would be a pool of government budgetary allocation, and capitals from multilateral institutions to provide funds to youth who come out with good business ideas.
The NPP will also work with labour unions to develop a database and a National Apprentice Agency to transfer the existing national apprenticeship model form a supply driven to the one that is in tune with changing times.
He lamented about the difficulties young businesses face when clearing goods promising “the NPP will reduce charges, introduce reforms and benchmark it with Dubai.”
Touching on the one-district, one-factory policy of the party, Mr Kyeremanten said the project would be treated with the seriousness it deserved. He said they would partner private businesses to make the project sustainable.
He explained the identification of these district projects would be done with the involvement of the private sector and district assemblies to stimulate industrial activities.
He said the project will see two or more districts collaborating to setup one district and later given the opportunity to undertake separate project. Under the initiative, many collapsed government projects would be revitalized across the country.
“I want to assure you that the initiative is a well structured programme that will contribute significantly to the economic development of the country,” he said.
Many industries such as the Iron and steel, aluminium industry, automobile, a vehicle assembling plants, equipment and machine parts and assembling of electronic components would be established in across the country.
“These are to ensure we establish major landscape factories that will create jobs in Ghana,” Mr Kyeremanten said.
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