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Economist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana, Dr. Twumasi Baffour Priscilla, says Ghana needs to industrialize its economy to ensure job creation and well-being for citizens.
Commenting on the NPP and NDC manifesto in the JoyNews Newsfile, he said: “We hope that any political party job creation agenda will critically focus on the country’s productive enterprises. So that they could start, grow and create sustainable jobs ”.
Focusing on the growth of the economy, he emphasized that decent jobs are created primarily in the industrial sector.
“Ghana’s growth path has performed considerably well over the past two decades despite the challenges facing the global market,” he added.
However, one problem that he identified and highlighted was the economy led by the service sector, which constitutes 66 percent of the employed people who are in the vulnerable work range.
According to Dr. Twumasi, this is a problem because most service jobs are informal and not very labor intensive.
“As a country that requires high employment rates, we have to go industrial.
“The problem in Ghana is not the people who do not have jobs, but the kind of work that people are doing,” he said.
The Associate Professor concluded her presentation by praising the New Patriotic Party (PNP) and the National Congress of Democracy (NDC) for taking a critical look at the industrial sector in their respective manifestos.
“Both the NDC and NPP manifestos agree that job creation is a multisectoral approach, you need to be very intentional in any attempt at all levels to create jobs,” he said.
While the NDC says it will initiate the big push initiative to invest about $ 10 billion in the industrial sector to create one million jobs when it is voted into office, the NPP plans to deepen its One District One Factory policy.
This, according to the ruling party, will be done by investing between $ 100 million and $ 200 million in the bauxite and iron ore industry in northern parts of Ghana to create more jobs.
