Gov’t Still Worried About Growing Unemployed Educated -Veep Amissah-Arthur


Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur says the large population of unemployed educated people in the country remain a source of serious concern to the government.

According to him, the figure of unemployed educated persons keep on appreciating with each passing year stressing that the development has the potential of destabilizing the country's social cohesion and economic development.

Mr. Amissah-Arthur said this when a former Vice President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Mr. Thomas Sakala called on him at the Flagstaff House on Monday.

Mr. Sakala is in the country to woo Ghana's support in his bid to become the next President of the AfDB, whose headquarters is in Abidjan.

He was accompanied to the Flagstaff House by the Ambassador of Angola and the High Commissioners of Namibia and Zambia.

Vice-President Amissah-Arthur said public and private tertiary institutions numbering over 30 makes available onto the labour market in the country thousands of graduates annually to compete for very few job opportunities.

He said the availability of few job opportunities in the formal and informal sectors imply that thousands of them would not be employed and, therefore, swell the ranks of the unemployed educated persons in the country.

He said there was the tendency that frustration will set in amongst the unemployed educated persons who could play into the hands of unruly political and social forces for misuse Vice-President Amissah-Arthur said political forces were always on the prowl looking for soft targets which they can exploit to sustain their inordinate ambitions and the unemployed fitted into their scheme of political activities.

Mr. Amissah-Arthur said government was concerned about this growing threat
to the well-being of the country and was for that matter devising a number prudent measures to address the issue.

He added that the government will not allow the situation to get out of hand before finding appropriate solutions to deal with it, stressing that government shared the plight of the unemployed educated people in the country.

Vice-President Amissah-Athur said he would liaise with the President, Minister of Finance and Central Bank of Ghana Governor on deliberate on the issue.

For his part, Mr. Sakala thanked the Vice-President for receiving him at such a short notice stressing “I am humbled by such magnanimity extended towards me".

He expressed the view that Ghana will use her influence to leverage other countries on the African continent to endorse him as the next President of the AfDB.


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