The mention of the creation of over two million jobs by the NPP government although not yet verified makes the ordinary man happy because the 2015 Labour Force Survey Report published in 2017 puts Ghana’s youth unemployment at 16.7% with variations in the regions, where Upper East has the highest youth unemployment of 25.2% and Brong Ahafo has the lowest with 11.1%. This makes unemployment a problem in Ghana. However, the availability of jobs to Ghanaians will increase their income and reduce inequality and poverty because employment is not only of economic importance but human right which every government must promote.
On the 22nd of August, 2020, the NPP government launched their manifesto in Cape Coast where they touted their achievements in the various sectors of the economy. They mentioned the provision of road infrastructure, hospitals, free SHS and building stronger and resilient economy in their four year period of governing this country. There was a display of charade and cacophony by their admirers thinking they have done something that this country has never seen before. At a point, most will agree that this party has done all as many will say in the local parlance.
As part of fulfilling their promises, they mentioned that they have created over one million (1,046,656) full-time equivalent jobs in the public and private formal sectors as indicated on page 9, item 11 under the Economy. Creating over a million formal jobs in three and a half year is a remarkable achievement if fact checking proves this right. However, data from the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) proves this figure of creating over a million jobs in almost four years may not be accurate.
The data from the SSNIT website indicates that SSNIT has an active membership of over 1.6 million as at December, 2019 from 1,353,610 in 2016 representing 18.2% increase between 2016 and 2019. This means that the active membership on SSNIT are not up to two million as at 2020 if the simulation is done using 6.41% increase between 2016 and 2017. If indeed the NPP created formal jobs of 1,046, 656 as published in their manifesto, then the active membership of SSNIT should be over two million and not 1.6 million as published by SSNIT because government being the employer must pay their social security contributions, thereby increasing the number of active members on the TRUST. However, there is unequal data published by SSNIT and government on jobs in the formal sector.
The reason for this mismatch of data by the government and SSNIT could be that government as the employer of these formal workers as well as the private sector that employed these formal workers is not contributing to its employees’ social security or SSNIT under reporting active membership on the social security scheme. Additionally, government could be cooking the figures to the admiration of its supporters and sympathizers in terms of job creation.
In conclusion, I can only ask, WHO IS NOT HONEST WITH THE FIGURES, SSNIT OR GOVERNMENT?
WRITER
BENJAMIN NSIAH
CPP DEPUTY COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR nsiahbenjamin76@yahoo.com
