The leader and 2016 flag bearer of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Dr Henry Lartey, has warned that the increasing rate of youth unemployment is a time bomb waiting to explode soon if urgent steps are not taken to reverse the trend.
He opined that if the social problem was not immediately arrested, it would result in unbearable social and security consequences.
He explained that the policies of governments over the years had led to the weakening and killing of local industries which were unable to create jobs for the youth and the lack of a proper enabling environment for those who were desirous of establishing their own businesses.
Mr Lartey was addressing students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi as part of the party’s programme to reach the youth of the country with its “Richer Ghana Agenda”.
Earlier, Dr Lartey, in the company of his running mate, Mr John Ameka, interacted with executive members and supporters of the party in 22 out of the 47 constituencies in the Ashanti Region and inspected the party’s offices in the region.
Fear
Dr Lartey explained that if those energies of the youth who were leaving basic, secondary and tertiary institutions without any prospect of earning employment were not channelled into productive use, they would turn them on the society in the form of attacks and upheavals.
He added that with so many universities, polytechnics and numerous other tertiary intuitions, coupled with the large number of students who ended their education at the secondary school level, constituting hundreds of thousands of brilliant and enterprising youth, there should be a deliberate move to get them busy with useful ventures.
Solution
Dr Lartey, who is one of the largest exporters of organic fruits from Ghana to Europe, noted that Ghanaian youth were exuberant and had tenable ideas; all they required were an enabling environment, direction, support and deliberate policies that would channel their energies to productive ventures.
He explained that even when the ban on government employment was lifted, the nation would not be able to cater for the millions of youth and reiterated that the only solution was to provide incentives for the youth to move into export-led agriculture.
He added that the vision of a GCPP government was to implement very attractive policies and programmes that would make Ghana the preferred destination of manufacturing and assembling plants across the sub-region.
Domestication
Dr Lartey said another great solution to the unemployment menace was the use of the “domestication policy”, which ensures that the state uses its huge purchasing power to buy made-in-Ghana goods and services as a way of encouraging local industries and a signal to Ghanaians to do same.
He said that would be a major boost to the local industries, encourage more people to produce locally while expanding the base of the economy to position it to create employment, increase revenue for the state and generate enough foreign exchange for the country.
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