THE VALLEY View University (VVU) near Oyibi in the Greater Accra Region has organized a brainstorming session on the current two-year net freeze on public sector employment in the country, with stakeholders calling on government to take the issue of job creation seriously.
The session was part of the 30th Anniversary Celebration of the first private universityin the country on the Theme; “30 Years of Excellence Seventh-Day Adventist Tertiary Education: Leadership and Trailblazing in Ghana's Private Education”.
Speaking at the ceremony, Kofi Asamoah, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) Secretary General noted that there would be serious economic and social consequences for the country as government implements the policy.
The session was to devise ways to minimize the negative impact of the job freeze on the teeming unemployed graduates and the Ghanaian economy.
The net freeze in public sector employment was part of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recommendation to the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) Administration for it to secure a $300 million loan from the IDA and World Bank to support the 2009 budget.
As part of the loan agreement, government was also enjoined to complete employment audit and eliminate “ghost” workers from government pay roll as a tool of reducing public sector wage bill in Ghana.
However, Kofi Asamoah, the TUC Secretary General pointed out that the policy, if carried through, would further aggravate the escalating rate of unemployment in the country.
According to him, over 230,000 people join the job market every year out of which only 2 percent is employed by the public sector, adding that placing a ban on employment will rather worsen the situation.
“Government should have a serious view on the matter and take the issue of job creation as a major priority like it has always done in other areas such as the checking of inflation, interest rates and improving macroeconomic stability”, Mr. Asamoah argued, adding that “we cannot build a strong economy having our youth out of employment with its massive social consequences”.
Government as the manager of the economy, he pointed out, has the responsibility to provide jobs for the people and also create the enabling environment for the private sector to thrive.
Mr. Asamoah noted that the private sector has not grown to the level that is required in the country for government to comfortably pass on its responsibility of job creation.
He also called on government to partner the private sector to create employment for the teeming unemployed youth in the country.
Other key speakers at the VVU'S Anniversary Celebration were Prof. Kwame Domfe of the University of Ghana Business School and Mr. William Baah-Boateng, a Labour Economist and Lecturer at the Economics Department, University of Ghana, Legon.
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