Youth unemployment; greatest threat to national security

The alarming statistics of Ghanaian youths who remain unemployed poses a danger to the country’s security if no immediate attempts are made to create avenues for young people to become self-employed, Dr. Ernest Kwarko, a public interest advocate, has said.

He said ‘when people can’t find jobs and are left with no hope to make a living, they become explosive,’ particularly young people, who have too much energy and ideas may turn to other means if they cannot find any rightful avenue to channel them.

He observed that too many young people in the country are desperate for jobs, and will not mind doing anything for small money.

He reckoned that as the trend continues, a time will come where ‘young people will rise against authorities because they feel that they owe them the right to provide them with jobs.’

Dr. Kwarko, a medical doctor by profession, who also doubles as a motivational speaker, who said this in an interview with the B&FT at the backdrop of a career seminar, in Kumasi, also joined calls for the country’s educational curriculum to be revised towards entrepreneurship.

He also asked that governments commit to promises to create employment for the youth while also creating an opportunity for them to become self-reliant rather than ‘betting’ their hopes on politicians to always offer them remedies.

The Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, in the 2016 budget statement in Parliament announced plans to create jobs for 100, 000 youths under the ‘Community Improvement Programme,’ against some growing concerns that about 250,000 young people join the labor force annually.’ It is against this background that some youth advocates have described as woefully inadequate the pronounced initiative by the Minister to address youth unemployment in the country.

The career fair which was organized by Career Blueprint under the theme “Creating wealth through IT,” attracted a massive turnout of youths many of who were in search of answers to become self-employed.

Evelyn Dela Dogbatse, a member of the organizers of the fair, said “Career Blueprint believes that empowering the youth with hands-on IT skills training is the surest and most feasible way to build and develop Ghana into a state we all will be proud of.”

“So we decided to organize this ‘Career Fair’ to expose, educate and inform the youth and stakeholders as to how we all could champion the growth of Ghana through IT.”

She contended that one cannot be in doubt about the fact that the youth of today are faced with a major challenge of growing joblessness with its attendant economic insecurity.

Source: B&FT