Unemployment threat to national security – Haruna Iddrisu

Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, has affirmed that the high unemployment rate in the country was “very dangerous and is a threat to national security.”

According to him, the growing unemployment rate among the youth in Ghana was very alarming, stating that if the issue is not addressed soon it will become a threat to national security.

Mr. Iddrisu, who doubles as Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale South constituency of the Northern Region, expressed this sentiment, whiles addressing participants at a workshop organised by the World Bank in Accra Wednesday.

Themed; “Enabling Youth Potential in Ghana,” the workshop was aimed at seeking public views on how private and public sectors can work together to create employment opportunities for the teeming youth in the country.

It also aimed at identifying the constraints that limit private employers from hiring young people, as well as those that limit the youth to create businesses.

The workshop also sought to bridge the gap of unemployment rate between young females and males in the country.

The sector minister in his remarks said in order to close the unemployment gap, public institutions including the Vocational Education and Training (COVET) and the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) needed to retune to enable them play their roles effectively by providing the necessary skills needed for employment.

According to him, the private sector needed to position itself better in the country in order to lead the employment drive in the country.

“The private sector should be positioned better to be the leaders to drive the employment rate in order to help close the gap of unemployment in the country,” he said.

He noted that there was the need for government to create an enabling environment to help the private sector thrive.

“With an enabling environment, the private sector can work to thrive in Ghana, and will eventually lead to the closing of the unemployment gap,” he said.

For his part, the World Bank representative, Sara Johansson, who made a power point presentation entitled: “Youth jobs profile, Constraints and Challenges,” asserted that the movement of people from the rural area to the unban has created more unemployment rate in the urban places which puts more pressure on government.

He added that among the unemployment rate in Ghana, the youth were less likely than the adult to be working.

She continued that, “in 2012 about 52 per cent of the people aged 15-24 were employed (compared to about 90 per cent for the 25-64 population), a third were in school, 14 per cent were inactive and 4 per cent were unemployed actively looking for jobs.”

Sara Johansson also noted that women in the same age group are particularly disadvantaged and have much higher inactivity rate than men.

She added that 17 per cent of young females are inactive as opposed to 11 per cent of males.

For her part, Maddalena Honorati of World Bank also said the high rate of unemployment in Ghana can be attributed to the kind of skills the educational system produce.

“The kind of skills in the educational institutions in Ghana also leads to high unemployment rate, so there is the need for the private sector to be involved in order for the situation to be improved.