A member of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Communication Team, Padmore Baffour Agyapong has supported statements made by Ghana’s Finance Minister, insisting that the young Ghanaian should pursue entrepreneurship.
According to him, anyone that knows the ideology and philosophical standpoint of the NPP knows that the comments of the Finance Minister are no news.
He made this statement in an interview with Don Kwabena Prah on the ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ show on Happy FM. “If it was an NDC member who made the statements the Finance Minister made, I would’ve been surprised because the NDC believes in social democracy and that the government has to do everything for you.”
He added that it is the belief of the NPP to empower businesses, entrepreneurs and grow the private sector in order to employ more people, and reduce the rate of unemployment.
He believes that some people have misinterpreted the Finance Minister’s statement. “You are the Finance Minister and now you are coming to tell us the Government’s Payroll is full, so what you are telling us is that we won’t employ anyone else but we keep producing students so what job will all the students do?”
Padmore Agyapong believes this line of argument should end because that has always been the NPP’s position on development.
“If we all say the Finance Minister has made a shocking statement, then it’s false because that’s the ideology of the NPP,” he said.
Background
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has urged fresh graduates from the various tertiary institutions to find innovative ways of becoming entrepreneurs.
According to him, that is the only way the rising unemployment rate in the country can be reduced.
He said it will help reduce the over-reliance on the government for jobs, and also reduce the burden on the government’s payroll.
Speaking at the Springboard Youth Dialogues which focused on government’s proposals for creating a million jobs, stimulating innovation and start-ups, YouBanC and other opportunities under Ghana CARES Obaatanpa Programme, Ken Ofori-Atta explained that 60% of Ghana’s revenue is spent every month on the payment of salaries of public sector workers.
“That payroll is full because we are spending some 60% of our revenue on remunerating some 650,000 people. That is not sustainable.”
He told the graduating students, “…You have the skills set to be able to do what you have to do. Our responsibility as a government is to create the environment and the macro stability, currency stability and ensure that you have access to the relevant skills and financing.”
He also said the government is structuring its budget to focus on how to support the youth to create their own jobs.
By Naomi Kwofie
