According to a recent World Bank Group assessment, Ghana requires a comprehensive policy framework that includes both interventions on the demand and supply sides of the labour market.
The report makes a number of recommendations, including operationalizing job intermediation systems to make sure that young people are properly connected to available jobs and expanding opportunities for high-quality employment, as well as programmes that incorporate new skills required by employers into the educational system, such as fundamental digital and soft skills.
According to the 6th Ghana Economic Update titled "Preserving the future: rising to the youth employment challenge," in addition to strengthening its macroeconomic framework through decisive and sustainable fiscal consolidation, Ghana also needs to increase youth employment. This can be done, in part, by increasing domestic revenue mobilisation, cutting back on energy sector expenses, and ensuring that all public expenditures are sustainable.
The study said that these steps will aid in addressing Ghana's debt sustainability challenges, which have grown in recent months.
According to Pierre Laporte, the World Bank's Country Director for Ghana, "restoring macroeconomic stability will be key to creating more and better jobs, but it will also be important to improve access to finance for businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, and fully leverage the opportunities created by the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to ensure that Ghanaian entrepreneurs can access new markets and stay competitive.
If it can manage the big challenges it confronts, Ghana's economic prospects are promising, with growth predicted to reach 5.0 percent in 2022 and to average 5.6 percent per year from 2022 to 2024. Broad-based growth is anticipated, with agriculture and services set to lead.
Ghana has held up exceptionally well in many aspects, exhibiting no symptoms of a recession in 2020 and a quick comeback in 2021 with a growth rate of 5.4 percent.
But doing so has come at a significant cost, most notably in the form of large budgetary deficits. Due to the deficits, the government has quickly accumulated debt, which has put it in a tough financial position with restricted access to foreign markets and a high cost of debt payment.
According to co-author and economist Kwabena Gyan Kwakye, "to address the rising debt sustainability challenges, government must continue to pursue fiscal reduction and aim to return to conformity with the fiscal rule."
It is admirable to see that the administration has outlined an aggressive fiscal consolidation route that is supported by strong revenues, decreases in COVID-19 spending, and banking sector rescues. However, fiscal policy should also work to assure well-targeted assistance for those in need, such as those who are suffering due to the epidemic or from commodity price increases that have been made worse by the conflict in Ukraine.
The research issued a warning that making quick but essential changes at the expense of Ghana's future—which is best represented by Ghana's youth—would be a mistake.
According to the research, Ghana's young have been expanding quickly and currently make up 36% of the country's population. Despite the economy's robust expansion over the previous 30 years, not enough employment have been created for them.
According to the National Population Census, in 2021, over three-quarters of adult jobless people were considered "young." Governments have developed several laws and programmes throughout the years to combat adolescent unemployment, but the numerous initiatives designed to assist them frequently fell short of the enormous demands.
A co-author and senior social protection specialist, Christabel Dadzie said, "To address this dilemma, policy makers and the business sector must collaborate to generate higher quality employment and guarantee that all categories of youngsters can access them.
Interventions in the labour market will need to be added to these measures in order to prevent skill mismatches and guarantee proper, fruitful job matching.
blogpay
