N/R: Unemployment in the country poses serious danger to the stability of Ghana- Project officer for Youth Empowerment for Life
The project officer for Youth Empowerment for Life (YEFL) Amina Abdulai Yurilim has expressed worry over the high rate of graduate unemployment in the country. She says the menace poses serious danger to the stability of the Ghana.
She states that despite major investments by both public and private sectors, Ghana is still faced with 12 per cent youth unemployment and 50 per cent general underemployment. This situation she noted, if not controlled will render Ghana’s energetic youth with potentials idle to the detriment of the development of the county.
She said ‘’unemployment is a very critical issue that we need to talk about because when you compare the number of young people that go into tertiary institutions, how many of them get jobs by the end of the day, you will marvel that just a few of them have access to job opportunities. Young people need sustainable jobs to leave independent to prevent the increase in cases of negative social vices in the country’’.
Miss Amina was speaking to Zaa news on the side-lines of this year’s African youth day celebration in Tamale. The celebration which was on the theme “Defining the future today; Youth led solutions for building the Africa we want” seeks to promote the increased recognition of youth as key agents for social change, economic growth and sustainable development in all areas of the African society.
As YEFL joined the world to commemorate the day, a youth parliamentary sitting was held highlighting contributions of youth led solutions to the development of the country. YEFL honoured some youth with citations to crown their achievements and arts exhibition from various districts in the Region.
Miss Amina Yurilim charged the youth to utilize opportunities given to them and venture into entrepreneurship in order to reduce the unemployment situation in the country.
‘’We need to be serious about entrepreneurship because government alone cannot secure jobs for all of us, but entrepreneurship in Ghana is quite difficult because as an entrepreneur there are certain requirements that you need to have before you can access certain funding but your ability to get those requirements is one hell of a deal to tackle, so one thing that I will suggest is that government should make these requirement easy for young people who want to go into entrepreneurship, so that they can employ themselves and others’’, she suggested.
By: Yasmine Ahmmed Kanton/zaanews.com/Ghana