President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr. Joseph Obeng has observed that millions of job seekers in Ghana are unemployable.
Responding to the May Day theme; “Protecting Jobs and Income in the era of covid-19 pandemic and beyond,” Dr. Obeng remarked that hundreds of informal sector jobs are being lost to foreign nationals especially from Togo, Ivory Coast and Lebanon.
“There are millions of jobs scattered around the country. The problem we are facing is not youth unemployment, rather, youth unemployability”, he said in an interview
“How could it be that the apparel industry in Ghana is being inundated with dressmakers from Togo and Ivory Coast. How could it be that industrial machines for manufacturing are being manned across our factories by the Chinese and Indians? This is scary”, he lamented.
Government’s strategy of creating jobs include the One District One Factory initiative aimed at providing about 150,000 jobs.
Even with this initiative, many factories, Dr. Obeng revealed, risk accruing losses as there are no skilled professionals to operate the machineries of these factories.
“We can’t resurrect the dark days or industrial revolution when many of our state-owned factories had to shut down because of lack of skilled labour. Government must take vocational training a lot more serious to prevent unemployed crises,” Dr. Obeng stated.
Meanwhile, President Akufo-Addo in his address at the May Day Celebration on Sunday, May 1st, 2022 enumerated interventions being undertaken by government to secure jobs amid post-COVID-19 era.
“This include retraining and retooling of workers, vocational training for technical skill acquisition, among others”.
GhanaFeed.com