Although the youth are the country’s biggest economic resource for boosting economic growth and development, challenges of high youth unemployment and underemployment pose a grave danger to the economy.
Just to give an indication, in 2016, it was projected that, given the country’s growing youth population, 300,000 new jobs would be needed to be created each year to absorb the increasing numbers of unemployed young people.
Government, development partners and the private sector have invested heavily in addressing the issue through multiple programmes aimed at providing skills training and job creation such as the Youth in Agriculture (YIAP), National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) and most recently, Nation Builders’ Corp (NABCO), not forgetting Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ); however, these interventions hasn’t drastically changed the employment structure.
A baseline study by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) revealed that previous youth development interventions have overly concentrated on unemployment concerns, to the neglect of the other aspects of youth development such as restructuring the educational system for the youth to acquire employable skills and creating of enabling environment for creating new jobs.
Agriculture and agribusiness entrepreneurship are key sectors that offer increased employment opportunities for the youth.
It is to this end, that a 3-day Youth Agripreneurship Development Workshop was launched at the La Dada-Kotopon Municipal Assembly in Accra this week, organized by the FAO under its Multi-country support to promote employment Opportunities for Youth in Agribusiness and the National Youth Authority in collaboration with UNIDO.
The 2020 baseline report by the FAO shows youth preference for variety of value chains such as aquaculture, selected fruits, vegetables and small livestock that have the potential of generating income in the shortest possible time.
Building the capacity of the youth in these value chains and promoting the incorporation of aquaculture, crops and livestock in an integrated farming system can diversify and increase their sources of income while generating year-round employment.
The FAO Representative to Ghana, Ndiaye Gueye in a speech to launch the workshop noted that agriculture and agri-business are key sectors that offer immense employment opportunities to the unemployed youth.
He said the youth unemployment challenge in Ghana, like other African countries, is vast and requires a multifaceted, deliberate and consistent response. He noted that the Ghana Living Standards Survey 7, puts the unemployment rate at 28.1%.
Mr. Gueye said it is therefore crucial to address the issue of youth unemployment through entrepreneurial development in achieving the 2030 Global Development Agenda and the AU Agenda 2063 which provides the youth with opportunities to be integrated in national development at all levels and empowered to achieve their full potential while being recognized as resilient and positive agents of change.
