Member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Communications Team, Padmore Baffour Agyapong, believes it is in the best interest of young graduates to pursue entrepreneurship, but admits not all of them can be entrepreneurs.
Padmore Agyapong on Happy FM’s Epa Hoa Daben show with Don Kwabena Prah commented on the now popular speech by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
He believes that the statement the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta made was to challenge students with entrepreneurial skills to consider having their own businesses, and enable them employ others, reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.
Citing a scenario from a few weeks back, he stated, “I interviewed a young man from KNUST a while back and this young man has been awarded Innovative award for Engineering and Technology. He has designed a system that can identify the exact location in a building where there is smoke likely to cause a fire outbreak.
Such people fall under the entrepreneurship category, and I believe they should be challenged to come up with their own businesses and employ others. This will reduce over-reliance on government for jobs,” he said.
On his account, the statement from the Finance Minister did not mean to convey that all graduates should pursue entrepreneurship, as he believes there are some who can be absorbed into the system, hence government jobs.
Background
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has urged fresh graduates from the various tertiary institutions to find innovative ways of becoming entrepreneurs.
According to him, that is the only way the rising unemployment rate in the country can be reduced.
He said it will help reduce the over-reliance on the government for jobs, and also reduce the burden on the government’s payroll.
Speaking at the Springboard Youth Dialogues which focused on government’s proposals for creating a million jobs, stimulating innovation and start-ups, YouBanC and other opportunities under Ghana CARES Obaatanpa Programme, Ken Ofori-Atta explained that 60% of Ghana’s revenue is spent every month on the payment of salaries of public sector workers.
“That payroll is full because we are spending some 60% of our revenue on remunerating some 650,000 people. That is not sustainable.”
He told the graduating students that: “…You have the skills set to be able to do what you have to do. Our responsibility as a government is to create the environment and the macro stability, currency stability and ensure that you have access to the relevant skills and financing.”
He also said government is structuring its budget to focus on how to support the youth to create their own jobs.
By Naomi Kwofie