Minority Spokesperson on Economy, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has taken on the government, over what he describes as misleading claims about job creation and the abandonment of key industrial initiatives.
Debating the 2026 Budget in Parliament on Wednesday, 19 November 2025, he cited National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) data, which shows that 150 factories are currently functional under the One District, One Factory (1D1F) initiative. He argued that stalling the programme has denied the country massive job opportunities and undermined the government’s own industrialisation agenda.
Oppong Nkrumah also questioned the status of the much-touted 24-hour economy policy and directly challenged the government to account for the jobs it promised Ghanaians.
According to him, the government’s recent claim of creating 800,000 jobs is highly questionable. He pointed out that:
“About 490,000 of these so-called jobs are actually casual labourers engaged on road projects, not sustainable industrial or formal sector jobs.”
“There are no concrete programmes targeting technical university graduates, leaving many of them without clear job pathways.”
“The current job creation drive appears to depend heavily on revenue performance, which he warned is uncertain and makes the strategy unsustainable.”
He urged the government to move beyond headline figures and instead invest in credible, job-creating initiatives that can absorb the country’s growing youth population.
Oppong Nkrumah further cautioned that young people will not hesitate to hold the government accountable if it fails to provide decent, lasting employment opportunities, insisting: the question many Ghanaian youths are asking today is, “Where are the jobs you promised us?”
