African Leaders Must Address Unemployment - Akufo-Addo

PRESS RELEASE 24TH NOVEMBER 2011

African Leaders Must Address Unemployment, Akufo-Addo Tells International Conference

The 2012 Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has stated that the most pressing issue which African leaders must be seen to be addressing forcefully is unemployment as ignoring this issue will result in social and political instability across the African continent.

According to the NPP flagbearer, in spite of the impressive growth recorded in sub-Saharan Africa, from 5% in 2010 to 5.7% in 2011, Africa’s growth which is driven heavily by the extractive industries is described the world over as “jobless growth”.

Nana Addo made this known today when he delivered the keynote address at the 12th Windhoek Dialogue Parliamentary conference in Accra, taking place at Novotel from 23rd to 25th November 2011.

The example in Ghana where there is a newly formed and fast growing Association of Unemployed Graduates and that of Tunisia where the recent revolution was ignited by a single frustrated graduate are, in the opinion of the NPP flagbearer, indicators that “the youth of Africa want job-centred economic policies.”

“Chairman, the structure of our economies is just not built for jobs. An economy driven by exports in raw materials just cannot create the necessary large pool of decent jobs with decent pay. If it had, our people would have enjoyed prosperity a long time ago,” Nana Addo stressed.

To arrest the situation of unemployment in Africa, Nana Addo said the structural transformation of economies across the continent from mere producers and exporters of raw materials was needed.

Citing the example of Ghana to buttress his assertion, Nana Addo stated that Ghana has not departed from being a “Guggisberg economy”, one that was structurally dependent on the production and export of raw materials, as gold, cocoa and crude oil will account for at least 81% of total exports for 2011 according to 2012 budget estimates.

The transformation of the Ghanaian economy, under an Akufo-Addo administration he said, “will focus on building an integrated industrialisation programme, with a clear bias towards supporting our small and medium scale enterprises with access to science and technology, incentives and markets to make them more productive and competitive.”

“What is required this time is the requisite leadership to inspire the transformation of the structure of the Ghanaian economy,” Nana Addo said, adding his government will introduce programmes, policies and incentives that will spur growth across all sectors of the economy “generating employment and income for our youth.”

“We need to restore hope and confidence in our young people in Ghana. We need to restore their hope and confidence in Ghanaian leadership. We need to offer them hope and skills for decent jobs with decent pay,” Nana Addo said to rousing applause from the audience.

The Chairman of the programme, Michael Gahler, responded to Nana: “Thank you very much Nana for this inspiring speech. It shows clearly that you are a leader with a clear vision for not only Ghana but also Africa. We hope you can translate this in a way that will resonate in all the towns and villages across Ghana. And we wish you the very best in next year’s elections.

Mr Gahler is the group co-ordinator of for the European People’s Party of the European Parliament.

The conference was also addressed by Ambassador Claude Maerten, Head of the EU delegation, Ghana and Samakuva Isaias, Federal President of Union of Parties for Democracy and Development of the African Parliament.