(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) The International Labor Organization (ILO) has charged the government of Ghana to provide decent jobs for its citizens as the West African country launched a new national employment policy on Wednesday.
"We find in the plan, a truly determined and impressive statement of intent which underlines the challenges of promoting and providing skills and jobs for Ghana's youth," Guy Ryder, the ILO director-general, told a special meeting marking the launch of Ghana's National Employment Policy.
He said that while the new policy takes up the key challenge of creating a sufficient number of jobs to meet Ghana's young and growing population, "it is necessary as well and in the strongest way that these must be decent jobs."
Ryder charged Ghana "to ensure that decent work for all is an explicit incentive goal of the development agenda."
"I have noted as well that you have decided to take up squarely the difficult issue of labor productivity upon which living standards and prosperity by definition depends," noted the ILO chief.
He reiterated support for the new employment policy, adding that his organization is determined to see its implementation.
"It is not so much what is said to today, it is what is done tomorrow and the day after tomorrow that matters," insisted Ryder.
The Ghana Living Standards Survey of 2013/2014 put the unemployment rate in the country at 5.2 percent.
President John Mahama, meanwhile, said his government is committed to the provision of decent jobs.
"Decent work sums up the aspiration of people in their working lives and that is what this government desires and is working to achieve for the working people of this country," he said.
"It is possible, it is doable and we will provide a decent work environment working together with our social partners, labor and employers," he vowed.
Mahama described decent work as a key plan of the agenda for Ghana's transformation.
"That concept is one we can achieve if we work together," he told attendants of the national jobs summit.
He lamented the fact that that 43 million out of the 75 million unemployed youth of the world are in Africa.
"Africa has a vibrant young labor market that is available to be put to work to advance our continent," asserted the president.
According to Mahama, Ghana is refocusing its education curricular to allow for more technical education in a move to produce skilled labor.
He cited several government projects, including a shoe factory in the Ashanti Region which employs over 200 youth who produce shoes for the Ghana Armed Forces.
Mahama also assured Ghanaians that some 3000 jobs will be created in a port expansion project being undertaken in the western region town of Takoradi.
Yaw Adu-Agyei Gyamfi, the vice president of the Ghana Employers Association, lamented the fact that the current energy crisis in the country is hampering employment opportunities.
"From January to date, about 12,600 people have lost their jobs due to this energy crisis," he told the summit.
For months, Ghanaians have groaned under a worsening energy crisis.
Currently, two of the country's main thermal power plants aren't producing the energy needed for power generation.
What's more, two major hydropower dams € at Akosombo in the Eastern Region and Bui in the Brong Ahafo Region € are not producing to capacity as a result of low water levels.
Every day, close to 650 megawatts of power is said to be lost by energy providers in Ghana.
The crisis sent thousands of angry Ghanaians onto the street in January and February to demand that the government remedy the situation.
The chronic power crisis has crippled business in the West African country.
According to a study published by the Ghana Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, Ghana lost between 320 million and 924 million Ghanaian cedi (between $84 million and $242 million) in 2014 alone as a direct result of the energy crisis.
The Power Ministry is exploring several options € including the import of two power barges from Turkey € to help ease the crisis in the short to medium term.
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