Vice President of policy Think Tank, IMANI Africa, Selorm Branttie, has indicated that government’s job creation strategy must focus on providing essential skills and sustainable jobs.
According to Mr. Branttie, most of the jobs government claims to have created could be done with a smaller number of people and more efficient and extensive use of technology.
At the launch of the Nation Builders Corps (NaBCo) which seeks to create 100,000 jobs for unemployed graduates, the Employment Minister announced that government had created over one million jobs in 15 months.
However speaking to Citi News, Selorm Branttie insisted that government must ensure that those employed are given the skills they need to be competitive.
“A lot of these jobs that we are pumping so many figures into are actually jobs that can be done way more efficiently with far less people with better technology. What are we doing to ensure that our people that we are training are going to be competitive in the next ten years? For me, that is the biggest issue because most of the jobs that we are trying to pad up and put figures on are jobs that can be easily replaced with machinery and a little bit more technical advancement.”
‘NaBCO open to abuse’
Meanwhile legal practitioner and former National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP, George Loh is concerned that recruitment into the Nation Builders’ Corps (NaBCo) will be open to abuse.
Whilst calling for clarity on how the Akufo-Addo Administration’s latest job creation initiative will be rolled out, Mr. Loh said he was worried about the fact some Members of Parliament and District Chief Executives may have a hand in the recruitment process onto the scheme.
Speaking on The Big Issue, he recalled that he had heard an MP saying “ I sat down with my DCE and we tried to find out those who are graduates and unemployed in my area.”
This is despite the fact that registration onto the scheme is meant to be via an online portal by the individual graduates.
“So if the MPs and the DCE’s are sitting down and deciding or trying to find out who are the graduates, it means that it [NaBCo] is open for abuse. It means they are not going to allow the process to run the way it must run,” Mr. Loh surmised.”
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By: Marian Ansah/citinewsroom.com/Ghana