Gov't to create half a million jobs by 2016 - Mahama Ayariga

Government has set itself a target to create a minimum of 500,000 jobs by the end of 2016, Minister for Information and Media Relations, Mahama Ayariga, has announced.

He said the government has an ambitious job-creation target backed by well laid out strategies to be implemented by the various governmental agencies.

Key among the strategies, he said, is to "energise the economy" by ensuring that 5,000 megawatts of power is generated to reduce cost of production in the private sector to enable them expand and create more jobs.

These formed part of the major strategies sanctioned by the government over the weekend, at a retreat at Peduase in the Eastern Region.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM Monday, September, 16, 2013, Mr. Ayariga revealed plans to "re-brand agriculture and make it a major employer rather than being perceived as a job for the older and uneducated" folks.

The agric sector has the potential to make the country a major exporter of agricultural produce and Ghana must not be importing from other countries, he stated.

Mr. Ayariga said the government was also "working with SADA [Savannah Accelerated Development Authority]... to determine major opportunities for agro-industrial growth in the North".

Tema in Accra and Sekondi-Takoradi in the Western Region, are also to be re-designated for major industrial projects, while Cape Coast is to be redeveloped as a major focal point for education for West Africa, the Minister said. He said these are expected to generate jobs at the local levels and open up the economy for growth.

Target unrealistic?

However, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobby, Chief Policy Analyst of the Ghana Institute for Public Policy Options (GIPPO) wants the government to come out with clear timelines, within which it can realistically achieve some of the 2012 electoral promises.

According to him, the John Mahama administration is needed someone specifically tasked to ensure that government's set programmes and projects are implemented.

"You have lost a year; knuckle down [and] look at what you can do ...It is important for the president to get an enforcer; somebody who makes sure that what has been planned gets done. That is how the president [John Mahama] is going to be judged", Dr. Wereko-Brobby stressed.