Unemployment Poses Threat

The Chairman of the Association of Ghana industries (AGI) for the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions, Nana Asante-Frempong, has stated that the current unemployment situation in the country is a time bomb that all stakeholders must seriously tackle before it explodes. Speaking at an AGI business luncheon in Kumasi on Thursday, October 21, 2010, the chairman said the private sector, which is capable of addressing the problem, is handicapped because of the enormous problems facing the sector. “What Ghana needs to do in order to come out of the current problem is industrialization and not sensitization,” Nana Asante-Frempong stated. He noted that “so far, as we continue to import all manner of goods into this country, the problem of unemployment cannot be solved”. According to him, the government had no business in establishing manufacturing industries as it usually appointed people to head its agencies not based on competence but on the loyalty of party members. This, he said, affected productivity and the quality of products, resulting in low revenue in terms of profit margins. He further explained that research had shown, especially in our part of the world that the private sector did better in the manufacturing sector. According to the AGI chairman, the business of government, so far as industrialization was concerned, was to create an enabling environment through sound policies that promoted local industries and enforced the laws that governed the operations of trade and industry. Nana Asante-Frempong lamented on situation where a Ghanaian company authorized to supply Ghanaian schools with exercise books had outsourced a Chinese company to produce the books to be supplied to the schools. “These kinds of behavior complicate the unemployment situation in the country,” he stressed. For his part, Dr. Alexander Ayogyam of the Department of Entrepreneurial Development, Kumasi Polytechnic, said the AGI must help itself by formulating internal policies that would help their operations against the current challenges facing the association. Speaking on the theme ‘Industrialization- The panacea for unemployment’, Dr. Ayogyam urged the association to compete in the globalised market. He also called on the industries to stir up the drive for industrialization since it was the only way to deal with the unemployment situation. Dr. Alexander Ayogyam cautioned that in the pursuit of industrialization, the industries should not compromise on technical and financial feasibilities, technical competence and technology that was adoptive to the system and environment. In his view, failure to observe these requirements would result in dire consequences and that proper research was the way to move forward into industrialization. He bewailed the current climate of manufacturing in the country, stating that all indicators on business policies and laws, and the enforcement of the laws, pointed to the fact that Ghana as a nation was comfortable in its present position, describing it as dangerous for dealing with the current unemployment situation in the country. The business luncheon was organized to give the AGI members in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo regions the opportunity to discuss ways of improving their businesses to help tackle the unemployment situation in the country.