Ghana's unemployment rate trippled in a little more than decade-Prof. Bokpin

A Professor of Finance at the University of Ghana Business School(UGBS, Professor Godfred Bokpin has disclosed that more than 1.55 million Ghanaians, representing a 13.4% of Ghana's economically-active people are unemployed.

According to him, the Ghanaian population which is expected to reach 45 million in 2040 will have those less than 30 years reaching some 58% within the same period. He further added that 10 million of the country's active youth will be entering the labor market searching for non-existent jobs, a situation he bemoaned.

Painting a picture of the situation, he said the situation is dire as the unemployment rate among Ghanaian youth between ages 15 to 24 has reached 25.9%. The figure, by computation, is twice that of the adult population, Professor Bokpin noted. The University of Ghana's Finance Professor made announced this at a Roundtable Discussion organized by the Citizens Coalition on Ghana's 2023 Budget in Accra.

Themed, Interrogating Ghana's 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy as Pathway to Economic Recovery, Professor Popkin revealed that the economy promises to grow at 2.8%, the lowest in the subregion having implications for job creation. According to Professor Bokpin, by 2025, barely 97 million jobs to be shared will be shared among labor, machine, and algorithms.

He noted further that joblessness among the experienced is on ascendancy resulting in worsening inequality and economic poverty opportunities. He was disappointed that the 2023 budget statement and the government's economic policy have failed to address the huge unemployment deficits.

He revealed that the next 3 or 4 years will be what he referred to as posterity which means there will be no breathing space for banks and individuals. Professor Bokpin contended that restoring macroeconomic stability required a price to be paid urging, "we should all be ready to go through". In the immediate, he argued that the government would wish to work at growing the economy but the growth for this year will be 2.8% having implications for job creation.

He explained that the cedi's appreciation is attributed to what he referred to as technical causes and sentiment. He intimated that when the sentiment is positive, the cedi appreciates explaining further that" last two weeks have seen some clarity in terms of Ghana's economic direction coupled with the staff-level agreement that has been reached.