Youth unemployment a tragedy – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has observed that graduate unemployment and unemployment, in general, has been a tragic part of the lives of Ghanaian.

He, however, said his government has introduced several initiatives including the Nation’s Builders Corps, in order to deal with the situation.

Launching the Nation’s Builders Corps at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi on Tuesday, May 1, Mr Akufo-Addo noted that the programme will employ 100,000 youth this year.

He said: “The Nations Builders Corps will employ in this year alone 100,000 young men and women to assist in the public service delivery in our country. The grave story of youth unemployment has been a tragic part of our lives for far too long in Ghana.

“Data from the renowned Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) published in March 2017 revealed that only 10 per cent of our graduates found jobs after the first year of completing school. That it takes up to 10 years for the graduates to secure employment.

“The world bank Jobs in Ghana report published in 2016 revealed that about 48 per cent of the youth in the country, this whose who are between the ages of 15 and 25 years, do not have jobs.

“Indeed, the situation has been worsened by the ban laced on the public sector employment by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and I believe we all know who and what occasioned that ban.

“Today the number of graduates being produced by tertiary institutions have outstripped the number of available jobs.”