“Job Creation Through Policy: A Blueprint for Ghana’s Entrepreneurial Development & Industrial Transformation”
As our national economic discourse increasingly focuses onEntrepreneurial mind set and structural turnarounds, the public requires clear, actionable technical insights rather than political rhetoric. Recent data from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) reveals a critical national unemployment rate from 14.7% in 2023 to 13.0%, with youth joblessness (ages 15–35) escalating to a staggering 21.9%, meaning nearly one in every three young persons locked out of the economy-Jobless. This is crisis level situation! It is crisis level because absorption into the job placement is still alarmingly low, even though, there are signs of high numbers in employment numbers!
In Volta and Central Tongu, my own district, unemployment data is relatively lower but still alarming. Additionally, the real issue in Volta, especially, Central Tongu or Tongu enclave is underemployment and venerability in job situation. To put it plainly available jobs are unstable and low remuneration! There is the need for us as citizens to support the government turn around the situation.
It is unfortunate that Tongu is blessed with resources that we can put our ideas together to take advantage of numerous government policies to create the needed job for our people. We have the fresh water body flowing to the sea. We have the clay deposit. We have the arable land, we have the untapped sites for tourism just to mention few.
I recall in our deliberation during 2024 NDC manifesto preparation, the issue of Local Economic Development (LED) came up. It was agreedat that level that MMDAs factor LED into their Medium Term Development Plan. This idea saw reflection in our 2024 Manifesto. Indeed, LED, as a policy tool can produce two benefits if done properly and intentionally targeted. LED can generate revenue for the MMDAs and more importantly create the much needed job standing on local asset-based situations.
I am a native of Central Tongu. Anytime I come round the district, I see my youth either sitting helplessly in joblessness or underemployed with low pay. But we can collectively do something about the situation before it gets out of hand. I have been in the development space for about two decades. I am certain that we can rally our chiefs and the people together to create a better Tongu. We have done it before in Central Tongu. I can vividly remember in 2015/2016, the President initiated intervention for job creation-Youth Enterprise Support (YES) initiative. We owned that initiative. We run with it in Central Tongu. We mobilized the youth by running Radio Programme on Dela Radio in Adidome; we organised orientation programmes for the youth for mind-set change; we assembled experts to support the youth to prepare modest Business Plan so they can benefit from YES initiative. We did all these without any financial support or express directive from Central or Local Government. The result was that two people from Central Tongu, out of 107 nationwide applicants, benefited from YES initiative at the time. We made arrangement to scale it up for more to benefit but NDC lost the election in 2016 and the initiative was jettisoned. Here we are, John Mahama has re-designed YES. It is now National Entrepreneurial and Innovation Programme(NEIP). Better positioned with a pool of policy alignment. This is positive and must position ourselves by preparing our youth to take advantage of this and other policy-programme.
Today, we have Adwumawura. We have 24HE Agro-Incentive Policy; we have National Apprenticeship Programme and STEP-UP; we have FEED Ghana; I know we have Rapid Industrialisation& mini-processing Plants agenda! Locally, it is time we own these policies and rally our people to take benefit from them. We can start our own local arrangement for a model pilot on some of the relevant job creation policy-handles of government. We cannotwait all the time for John Mahama to send us package before we hit the ground! All we need is the ideas first! Then the resource envelop to implement these ideas will be next! First, we must package the ideas.
A couple of weeks ago and this week, I started engaging a section of the youth in my district to offer some perspectives and insights into numerous government policies that are aimed at generating own jobsas a start-up or scale-up existing enterprises. I see a very eager and anxious youth. I provided hope and urge them to have confidence in our leaders. I reminded them that the government cannot employ all the youth on its payroll. That’s why job creation policies are made for self-job creation. Sustaining all these self-made jobs require holistic training – both technical and managerial capabilities. To succeed in sustaining self-employed job through SMEs, there is the need for capacity building. That is where there should plan. You don’t roll out programmes without first having a plan for technical and management capabilities. If we fail to do this, we will fall into same pitfall that led to the collapse of similar policy-induced job creation interventions. For me, technical and management skill sets should be the prerequisite! For me, from where I stand, that’s the way to go to de-risk these policy-based enterprise. It is common knowledge and must be well established that, managerial and or technical incapability account for enterprise failures in some cases, if not most cases.
For me, it is time some of us have audience with leadership and authorities for a more aggressive intentional and deliberate agenda to make these policies have meaning in the lives of our people.Admittedly, we are not purposefully showing urgency in some of the core job creation matters on the ground after they have been outdoored by the president. I think we can up our game on the ground to give effect to the policies of the government. I can see something is happening. But we can do far more and better.
I have worked out an exclusive, three-volume technical concept notetitled: “Job Creation through Policy: A Blueprint for Ghana’s Industrial Transformation & Entrepreneurship.” This three-volume written from my perspective as a development practitioner with about two decades of project design and execution experience across World Bank, EU, and MiDA CDFBO funded portfolios, this concept applies project management milestones, local governance law, and social accountability to contemporary policy themes like the 24-Hour Economy, LED, Adwumawura and SME, Agribusiness ventures and others. The Concept Note will reach the President and relevant authorities. It is a matter of time. Arrangement will be made for the audience of those who matter!
The Concept Note introduces highly distinct, debate-driven doable-ideas; possible sources of funding; field-level execution; measurable expected results and sustainability mechanism. Look, you don’t have any idea what we can do in Central Tongu/Tongu, Keta, Ketu North, Afadjato, Adaklu, Anlogajurisdictions as verifiable proof, coupled with my direct work experience, knowledge and personal studies in these geographic areas for instance, under the MiDA Commercialization of Farmer-Based Organizations (CDFBO) program show.
I have always made myself available to support. Nothing has changed from that!
People express surprise why Confidence Abotsi has not been offered a place in government in spite of his huge expertise, experience, contribution to party and track records during his leadership of the NDC Party as Constituency Chairman. It is true we all work to sustain the party during opposition and further worked hard to secure victory in 2024. But it is true also that, all will not get it same day. Some will get it in the morning, others in the afternoon and in the evening. In I football game, sometimes, your last minutes introduction onto the pitch wins the game. We will support anytime any situation whether in or not.
For now, we only have to wait for the concept note and how we package our ideas which are tied to job creation policies of HE John Mahama administration.
Confidence E. Abotsi
MBA (Project Management), LLB, BA, Exe Cert Agribusiness & Cert M&E
Development & Management Practitioner & member of Employment & Job Creation Manifesto Committee
Mob: 0244773170
Email: configh200@gmail.com
