Strive to be employers, not employees – Mahama charges graduates

It is not possible for the public sector to provide jobs for all graduates, President John Mahama has said.

He has, therefore, encouraged young graduates to strive to create jobs for themselves rather than go seeking jobs.

Speaking as the Guest of honour at the launch of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN), which recently acquired 100 percent of the International Commercial Bank (ICB), Mahama said: “The public sector cannot give employment to every student coming out of school. It’s not possible. It doesn’t happen anywhere in the world”.

“And so everybody comes out of school and he wants a job in foreign affairs, he wants and job in ministry of finance, he wants a job in births and deaths, it can’t happen”, he emphasised.

According to him, “anywhere in the world, the private sector is the largest employer”.

“We’re expanding education; we have more people coming out; the private sector must expand to bring more people into that sector; and we’re trying to create an orientation where all our young people come out and are not seeking jobs but can also be entrepreneurs, and start up their own industries and that’s why we’ve set up the YES [Youth Enterprise Support] programme and we’re hoping to finance startups with a Ghc10 seed fund …to create a model for young people that you don’t need to be an employee; you can be an employer”, the President said.

He encouraged graduates that: “You can come out of school; you can have an innovation; you can have an idea; you can set up your business and employ your colleagues to work for you. And if we’re able to do that and be competitive, then Ghana will be successful”.