Growing youth joblessness threatens national security –Osafo Maafo warns

Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo, Senior Presidential Adviser has said regardless of the Government’s resolve to boost the private sector for job creation, youth unemployment remained incredibly high.

With surging population growth, he said the government sector couldn’t employ the relatively sizeable proportion of the country’s unemployed youth.

In effect, it had become imperative for the government to sustainably create a congenial business atmosphere for the private sector to take a commanding lead in solving the country's unemployment challenge.

Speaking at the National Stakeholder’s Dialogue on Public Sector Reforms (Phase one) in Cape Coast on Monday, he said: “The major problem in Ghana in my view is unemployment and the way it is growing could be a security threat.”

“Our youth unemployment is linked to tertiary education. When I was the Minister of Education, there were five public universities in Ghana, but there were more than 90 universities in Ghana.

“So, we are talking about only five universities in 2005 and over 92 with their products searching for employment. So, the solution that the Public Sector Reform will propose must be solution-oriented to save the situation,” Mr Osafo Maafo stated.

The three-day dialogue series was put together by the Public Sector Reform Secretariat in collaboration with the World Bank.

The forum sought to engage cross-sectoral stakeholders to take stock of the implementation of the National Public Sector Reform Strategy (NPSRS) and the key reforms undertaken in the public sector between 2018-2023.

It will court ownership and support for the development and implementation of a new NPSRS for the period 2025-2030.

Eventually, it will provide valuable learnings on what has been achieved, what areas of the reforms need more attention, what areas are no longer relevant and identify the gaps in the strategy because of organisational change or external or contextual changes and emerging issues.

It is themed, “Taking Stock and Identifying Emerging Issues to Shape Ghana's New Public Sector Reform Strategy, 2025-2030.”

Mr Osafo-Maafo said successive Governments had over the years, undertaken reforms to improve public sector performance, however, what he described as “modest reforms in the public sector” have not led to improvements in job creation and wealth maximization.

The reforms had primarily provided an opportunity for the assessment of the relevance of the ideas, visions and commitments needed to leverage the public sector as a catalyst for growth and development.

The situation meant key sectors of the economy had not been fully aligned with the needs of the citizenry and the private sector for purposes of efficient service delivery and job creation.

Mr Osafo-Maafo said the global financial crunch had compelled governments to work with less resources; hence there was a need to continue and sustain public sector reform initiatives and programmes without compromising the quality-of-service delivery.

He indicated innovative technology of efficiency had evolved and Ghana’s public administration system would be brought to date and made innovative.

“We need to redefine the role of the public sector to enable it to serve as the needed catalyst for a competitive private sector and improved service delivery to the citizens.

“It is instructive to note that, the effectiveness and efficiency of a country's public sector is a key determinant of growth and development. Public sector reforms are still not an option for the public sector of Ghana, but a necessity.

“It will help the government to respond to the fast-growing environment and society’s needs and position it competitively on the global stage,” he advocated.

Mrs Thelma Ohene-Asiamah, Director of General Administration for the Public Sector Reform Secretariat said her outfit was responsible for policy initiation, strategic guidance, and coordination of reforms in the public sector of Ghana.

In line with this, our utmost priority is to ensure the sustainability of all reform initiatives to enable the country to realise the desired change and transformation in public service delivery.

GNA