The heavy-lifting is over; expect brighter days in my second term - Mahama

President John Mahama says his four-year term was used to lay a solid footing for the country, and has thus asked Ghanaians to prepare to reap the seeds of their sacrifices in his next term, saying the time of heavy-lifting is over.

According to him, the challenging times that people have had to endure in the last years under his government was over as the structural reforms that Ghanaians sacrificed for is about to pay off.

“The heavy lifting has been done. Over the last four years we’ve done the heavy lifting. We’ve been involved in building the foundation. This four years have been foundation laying…and I believe that in my second term, there is not much heavy lifting to be done. We’ve done the structural reforms that is needed to make the economy come back to the path of growth,” he said.

President Mahama, who is seeking re-election in the December 7 elections on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress said the foundation his government has laid has put the country on a sound path to economic growth.

Speaking at the GBC Presidential Encounters Wednesday night, the President said “there are challenges that we’ve faced together as a people and I’ve called on Ghanaians to make sacrifices. We’ve sacrificed together.

“I want to thank Ghanaians for the opportunity to serve. I believe that I have served with dedication, it’s been tough going forward but we have been through this together and I believe that we are on the cusp of brighter days ahead,”

President Mahama assured President Mahama observed that Ghanaians have developed high hopes of the country’s prospects because of the structural reforms his government has laid, noting “You suffer to gain, you don’t get any good thing without striving for it. I believe we are on the cusp of reaping what we’ve sown”

Gov’t ability to employ is restricted

On the issue of unemployment in the country, the President indicated that the government is constraint in employing people into the public sector.

“Most of our young graduands come out hoping to get a job with government but government’s ability to employ is so restricted. If you take the whole of our economy, the number of people on the public sector roll is about 600,000 people out of 27 million people.

He said the private sector should be at the forefront of employing the millions of people in the formal and informal sectors of the economy, noting that the conducive environment needed for businesses to thrive are being created.

President Mahama blamed the unemployment rate among graduates in the country on lack of proper practical experience.

He said the government, industry and the academia are looking at how to fine-tune the country’s colonial education system which he said is very theoretical and not practically oriented.

“In today’s globalised world there is high labour mobility and so nobody wants to invest in going to take a fresh graduate, train him over a 5 year period and when he’s become experienced and well skilled somebody pays him a better salary and takes him away,”

He said this was part of the reason for the conversion of polytechnics into technical universities to give graduates the requisite practical experience to fit into the job market.