When Michael Adongo graduated from of one of the public tertiary schools in Ghana in 2000, it was a big event for his family and the entire Tanga community in the Bawku West District of Upper East Region.
He was the first graduate from the farming community. With the passage of time, that achievement has dimmed, especially since he has remained jobless for the past thirteen years.
Michael’s younger brother, John Adongo, died of Cerebral Spinal Meningitis (CSM) disease which is caused by bacteria. The disease is prevalent in that region.
Michael felt guilty for not being able to help his brother because he didn’t have a good job.
After this sad incident, Michael migrated to Ashaiman, one of the slum areas in the Greater Accra Region in search of a white colour job or to seek the proverbial greener pastures.
He walks 50 Km from Ashaiman to Accra daily in search of job. He has been doing so for the past eight years. This means Michael walked 400 Km within the last eight years. However, he could not land on a single job.
MICHAEL’S ORDEAL
Narrating his story to African Eye Report at the Ministries area in Accra, when he went there to make enquires about a possible job vacancy, he said: “I start my journey from 4am at dawn and by 7am I am in Accra, where I take my breakfast. After that I move from office-to-office in search of a job”.. His day usually ends at 7pm. At times Michael eats one meal a day because he cannot afford three square meals.
He told this newspaper that he lives with his elder sister, Asibi and her husband, including three children in a single room.
According to him, his sister has been very supportive since she is the bread winner of the family. Asibi is a hairdresser while the husband is a labourer at a block factory nearby.
After graduating from the university, Michael thought he would get a good job to take care of his 65-year-old father, who was persuaded to stop farming because of hernia.
Another young brother of Michael, by name Awuni, has taken his ailing father‟s responsibility as the breadwinner of the Adongo family, thanks to his booming handy craft business.
Though the 29-year-old Michael is living by magical means, he is hopeful that one day the situation will turn around and get better.
Ironically, thousands of Ghanaian youth are facing similar predicament after completing school and are ready for the job market, although the Ghanaian economy is projected to grow between 6 to 7 percent for 2017, after registering a worst decline in 2016. The country’s economy grew at 3.5 percent in 2016 down from the 3.9 percent in 2015, according to World Bank.
RISING UNEMPLOYMENT
Rising youth unemployment is one of the deepest economic and social problems facing economies the world over, increasingly considered an „international time-bomb‟ for both developed and developing nations alike.
The global unemployment rate is expected to rise modestly from 5.7 to 5.8 per cent in 2017 representing an increase of 3.4 million in the number of jobless people, a new ILO report shows.
The number of unemployed persons globally in 2017 is forecast to stand at just over 201 million – with an additional rise of 2.7 million expected in 2018 – as the pace of labour force growth outstrips job creation, according to the ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook-Trends 2017 (WESO).
“We are facing the twin challenge of repairing the damage caused by the global economic and social crisis and creating quality jobs for the tens of millions of new labour market entrants every year,” said ILO Director-General, Guy Ryder.
“Economic growth continues to disappoint and underperform – both in terms of levels and the degree of inclusion. This paints a worrisome picture for the global economy and its ability to generate enough jobs. Let alone quality jobs. Persistent high levels of vulnerable forms of employment combined with clear lack of progress in job quality – even in countries where aggregate figures are improving – are alarming. We need to ensure that the gains of growth are shared in an inclusive manner,” he added.
The report shows that vulnerable forms of employment – i.e. contributing family workers and own account workers – are expected to stay above 42 per cent of total employment, accounting for 1.4 billion people worldwide in 2017.
“In fact, almost one in two workers in emerging countries are in vulnerable forms of employment, rising to more than four in five workers in developing countries,” said Steven Tobin, ILO Senior Economist and lead author of the report.
As a result, the number of workers in vulnerable employment is projected to grow by 11 million per year, with Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa being the most affected.
The authors also warn that unemployment challenges are particularly acute in Latin America and the Caribbean where the scars of the recent recession will have an important carry-over effect in 2017, as well as in Sub-Saharan Africa which is also in the midst of its lowest level of growth in over two decades. Both regions are confronted with strong growth in the numbers of individuals entering working age.
By contrast, unemployment should fall in 2017 among developed countries bringing their rate down to 6.2 per cent (from 6.3 per cent). But the pace of improvement is slowing and there are signs of structural unemployment. In both Europe and North America, long-term unemployment remains stubbornly high compared to pre-crisis levels, and in the case of Europe, it continues to climb despite the receding unemployment rates.
NO UNEMPLOYMENT DATA
Currently, Ghana has no comprehensive statistics on its labour market. The country which is celebrating its 60 years of existence does not know what the true unemployment rate is and that is one of its biggest problems.
Many experts say this situation has hampered the accurate assessment of the labour market while government’s policies and programmes directed at improving the labour force in the country have not yielded the expected results.
In 2016, the World Bank in its report on jobs in Ghana said that about 48 percent of the youth in the country, who are between 15-24 years do not have jobs. The report dubbed the “Landscape of Jobs in Ghana,” explored the opportunities for youth inclusion in Ghana’s labour market.
“In Ghana, youth are less likely than adults to be working: in 2012, about 52% of people aged 15-24 were employed (compared to about 90% for the 25-64 population), a third were in school, 14% were inactive and 4% were unemployed actively looking for job. Young women in the same age group are particularly disadvantaged and have much higher inactivity rates that men: 17% of young female are inactive as opposed to 11% of males,” the report added.
ILO WARNING
The ILO has warned of a “scarred” generation of young workers who may face life-long consequences in terms of lower future wages and distrust of the political and economic system.
The 2013 Arab spring events across North Africa and the Middle East highlighted this issue, demonstrating the critical link between youth employment prospects and a country’s wider economic prosperity, social cohesion and political stability.
In the global context of youth unemployment, the least educated and most disadvantaged young people are often among the worst affected.
For example, although many African economies, including Ghana, are experiencing growth, their young people are often shut out of the labour market.
Based on growing youth populations, World Bank estimations suggest this trend looks likely to continue with Africa needing to create 100 million more jobs by 2020 just to maintain current levels of employment.
This “demographic bulge‟ is a global trend. The number of young people in the world is at an all-time high, at around 1.2 billion, and within the next decade a further one billion people will come of working age.
Young people are the next generation of potentially productive economic and social actors; their productivity is core to the course of poverty reduction and economic development.
This growing youth demographic, in the context of developing nations, represents a once in a lifetime opportunity for locally led economic growth which can secure a prosperous future for some of the world poorest people.
The immediate past UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called for strengthened policies and investments involving young people and many global leaders now consider the youth unemployment challenge as significant a post-crisis challenge as repairing public finances.
Ghana’s unemployment bulge has been blamed on past economic reforms in the country, especially the Structural Adjustment Programmes [SAP] that was adopted in the 1980s. From that time onward, the country has struggled to maintain its economic foothold. Subsequent policies have not been able to stop the collapse of major flourishing industries, especially the manufacturing and textile industry.
Today, the major employer is the government but it cannot employ everyone. The private sectors in Ghana is being hampered by economic challenges including high energy cost.
Many of those who work in the private sector do so without a formal contract. This means there is no job security, even for some of those who have been employed. There have also been incidents of people working in factories without contracts. When they sustain bodily injuries, they are kicked out with no compensation. What’s more, there are lots of underpaid workers.
GOVERNMENT INTERVENTIONS
In a bid to address unemployment in the West African second largest economy after Nigeria, the Government of Ghana had initiated a number of interventions including the entrepreneurship development programme aimed at monitoring the business environment and undertaking regulatory reviews for sustainable development of small, medium and large-scale enterprises.
Planting for Food and Jobs
The main highlight for the 2017 budget of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) is the “Planting for Food and Jobs” campaign which was launched by the government some few weeks ago will create 750,000 jobs in both direct and indirect employment for youth and farmers.
The campaign is designed to encourage all citizens (both urban and rural) to take up farming as a full or part-time activity. It is intended to structure it along the lines of the erstwhile “Operation Feed Yourself” (OFY) programme in the 1970s. The campaign will involve the production of maize, rice, soybean, sorghum and vegetables. Other crops will be adopted in subsequent years.
The campaign, according to the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr Owusu Afriyie would be anchored on five pillars namely: provision of improved seeds; supply of fertilizers; provision of dedicated extension services; marketing and e-Agriculture and monitoring.
It is expected to increase the production of maize by 30 percent, rice by 49 percent, soybean by 25 percent and sorghum by 28 percent from current production levels in the country.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development will pilot the Fisheries Nucleus-Outgrower Scheme in two fishing communities along the Volta Lake, this year.
At full operation, the Scheme will create an estimated 750 additional direct job opportunities, particularly for the youth, and 1,200 indirect jobs for women fish processors and traders along the aquaculture value chain, according to the 2017 Budget.
YEA
The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) engaged 96,100 youth in all districts. In 2017, YEA will create 115,000 jobs in all districts; 45,000 youth under the Youth in Sanitation module will be maintained by the various District Assemblies; applying the Triangular Model, some YEA beneficiaries will be trained under the Youth in Trades and Vocations module and organized into vibrant cooperative societies for business development support.
While the Graduate Entrepreneurial Business Support Scheme (GEBSS) will be revamped to provide entrepreneurial support to 100 young graduates to enable them establish their own businesses.
The Department of Cooperatives organized 525 economic groups into cooperative societies and audited 385 of existing cooperative societies. The Ghana Cooperatives Council, on the other hand, trained 67 cooperative artisans.
In 2017, the Cooperative Bill will be revised and passed into Law to strengthen the regulatory role of the Department of Cooperatives. In collaboration with key stakeholders, 5,000 farmer-based cooperative societies will be trained in business management practices and supported with funds and access to markets to enable them meet their production targets within selected supply chains.
Under the Ghana Social Opportunity Project (GSOP), a total number of 160,627 jobs were created for extreme poor persons in 2016. In 2017, the Ghana’s Labour-Intensive Public Works (LIPW) Policy will be integrated into the strategic plans of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) for the creation of job opportunities for extreme poor households.
Skills Development Programme
In 2016, the Skills Development Agencies of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations namely, Management Development and Productivity Institute, National Vocational Training Institute, Integrated Community Centre for Employable Skills, Opportunity Industrialisation Centre – Ghana (MDPI, NVTI, ICCES and OIC-G), trained 11,573 youth in various vocational trades, management skills development and productivity enhancement programmes.
The NVTI also tested and certified 35,061 candidates in vocational skills, ICT and secretary-ship. In addition, 1,725 master-craft persons were trained and 350 vocational schools were inspected and accredited.
In 2017, 15,500 youth will be trained in various vocational trades and organize testing and certification for 42,000 candidates in vocational skills, ICT and secretary-ship. NVTI will also provide employable skills to 5,000 unemployed youth under the Trades and Vocation module of YEA to enhance their employability.
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report
