A Deputy Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Bright Wereko-Brobby said the breakdown of the over one million jobs government has created, was released just to assure Ghanaians that the unemployment situation in the country “is not that bleak” and that “people were already getting jobs.”
But when asked about the details for some jobs like their descriptions and timelines on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Wereko-Brobby said he “cannot go into those specificities” because they were “agency-specific.”
The list indicates that over 70% of the jobs created was through the Food and Agriculture Ministry’s Planting for food and jobs’ programme.
In February, the Food and Agriculture Ministry disclosed that 745,000 jobs had been created under the first phase of the programme with the caveat that the jobs were “unofficial jobs.”
The Sector Minister explained to the media that, the jobs were created in rural areas, were essentially not taxable, and did not contribute to pension funds. This was in response to the skepticism that met the announced figure.
Those figures were based on the number of additional inputs as well as improved seeds and fertilizers supplied to participating farmers in 2017.
More details to come
Mr. Wereko-Brobby was unable to provide similar details for certain jobs under areas like the Forestry Commission and the Mining sector, which accounted for over 24,000 jobs.
He however said the government will be relying on the Ghana Statistical Service to provide more substantive employment data.
“… whilst we wait for the Ghana Statistical Service to help us with these figures you want, we went asking the various agencies and ministries how many jobs have you created and they told us… If they [ Ghana Statistical Service] brings it to us, then we will have a scientific basis and a comprehensive report which will capture the kinds of things you want to see.”
The Deputy Minister even believes the 1,096,404 figure provided for jobs created is an underestimation.
“The numbers that we have given you, in the next week or two, are likely to even go up. Even yesterday [Wednesday], a lot of agencies called our office and said we have created this number of jobs but you didn’t come here. The figure we have given Ghanaians is on the modest side.”
“For now, we are telling you that these people have gotten jobs and they are enjoying. They are having a salary at the end of every month,” he added.
Source: citinewsroom.com