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Former President and 2024 Presidential candidate for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama, has revealed that, once he resumes office on January 7, 2025, he will set up a ministry to address youth development and unemployment issues confronting the youth in Ghana.

Addressing students at the Wisconsin University, in Accra, former President Mahama explained that the increasing unemployment rate in the country necessitated this decision to find a solution to the perennial challenge.

Mr. Mahama acknowledged, “As reported in the 2021 Population and Housing Census, Ghana has a working-age population of 19.9 million people. And out of this 1 .6 million are unemployed.”

“The general unemployment rate currently as announced by the Ghana Statistical Service stands at 14.7%, an alarming increase from the 8.5% in 2016. The higher unemployment ratio is among those with a tertiary education. And so it means that you are punished for successfully achieving tertiary education,” he added.

He further indicated that to address these challenges, the Ministry of Youth Development will solely focus on developing youth's talent and placing them in available job market slots.

“This ministry is going to cut across all ministries because it is going to input policy for employment of young people in all the ministries, from education to health to agriculture to industry to trade and every other ministry,” he said.

Former President Mahama's statements comes after a study by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), released in February 2024, revealed that more educated Ghanaians cannot find work to do, although they are available to work. This youth unemployment syndrome has been lingering for many years, however, Mr. Mahama has declared an end to the worrying situation when he is voted into office.

Almost a quarter of persons representing 22.3 percent who experienced an unemployment spell for 21 months from January 2022 to September 2023 had completed tertiary education, while almost 48 percent of persons experiencing an unemployment spell had completed secondary education.

The GSS study defined an unemployment spell as an uninterrupted period within which a person had stayed unemployed, although he had the capacity and the willingness to work.

The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, presented the labour statistics contained in the Ghana 2023 Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey (AHIES) quarter three labour statistics bulletin in Accra.