The Progressive People’s Party(PPP) has proposed that to help tackle the unemployment problems in the country, there is the need for the State powers to make it possible for all Ghanaians to patronize made-in-Ghana goods.
Mr Alistair Jairo Nelson, National Youth Council Member of the PPP and spokesperson for the “Tweeaa” Tour, made the proposal when some executive members of the Progressive Youth Movement of the party over the weekend toured the Upper East Region to assess the level of the current hardships confronting the people, particularly the youth in the country.
He explained that one of the major means that could be adopted to address the upsurge of unemployment of youth in the country was to make sure that Ghanaians consumed what they produced, instead of relying on foreign goods.
He cited for instance, that the country, particularly the Fumbisi Valley in the Builsa District of the Upper East Region, and other parts of the country have the capacity of producing rice to feed the nation, thereby creating more jobs and wealth for Ghanaians, and yet government spends huge sums of money annually importing rice into the country.
He mentioned high inflation and overvaluation of the exchange rates among some of the hardships confronting Ghanaians, particularly workers; and said both the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party governments have failed Ghanaians.
He impressed on voters to re-examine their plight and vote the PPP as a third party, come 2016, to deliver them from their economic woes.
Mr Abubakar Mobarak, Regional Co-ordinator of PPP in charge of Tertiary Chapter, regretted that successive governments, including the NDC and NPP, had failed to revamp the defunct Meat and the Pwalugu Tomato Factories, and indicated that when the PPP is voted into power, the revamping of the factories will be among its topmost priorities.
He noted that the northern parts of the country had the greatest potentials of land for farming, and stated that the PPP would among its strategies, ensure that the area was exploited to make it the food basket of the country.
More dams, he stressed, would also be constructed in the Region for all-year round-farming, so as to create more jobs for the youth, to deter them from travelling to the southern parts of the country to look for non-existent jobs.
Mr Devine Nkrumah, National Youth Co-ordinator, expressed worry about the teacher and doctor deficits in the country, particularly in the northern parts, and wondered why such gaps exist whilst there were huge unemployment of graduates roaming about.
He reiterated that the PPP would create more jobs by expanding the educational, health, road and the agriculture sectors among others.
The participants, including the Progressive Youth Movement of the PPP drawn from the tertiary institutions in the region who attended the forum, expressed disappointment about the current difficulties of the economy.
