GRASSROOTS NGOs ARE IMPORTANT STAKEHOLDERS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT

 It’s estimated that over 200 million Africans are between the ages of 15 and 24; making Africa the youngest population in the world. The World Bank 2016 report on jobs in Ghana disclosed that about 48 percent of the youth in Ghana, who are  between 15 - 24 years do not have jobs. The report further emphasized that unemployment is higher among young women -17% of young females do not have jobs as opposed to 11% of young males.

A lot of reasons have been cited for high  rate of youth unemployment,  Chief among  them is Ghana’s reliance on imported goods. The absence of major factories to turn Ghana’s abundant raw materials into finished goods means a lot of young people are denied thousands of important jobs these factories would have created. Secondly,  governments have been accused of failing to sufficiently assist the youth. For instance, young people are less likely to be offered loans by banks to start their businesses. High interest rates also discourage young people from applying for bank loans.

 Employers in Ghana complain that universities are not equipping university students with sufficient practical and problem solving skills required by industries.  Senior High School leavers are considered less equipped than their tertiary counterparts to land decent, well-paying jobs.

 To reduce the rate of youth employment, the government has introduced  two big initiatives: tax exemptions for entrepreneurs who are 35 years and below for a period of 3 to 5 years and a mass employment program named the Nation Builders Corps (NABCO), which is expected to employ 100,000 young people with degree and diploma certificates. Still, there remains four or five times that number without jobs.

Tackling youth unemployment in Ghana would require the active participation of multiple stakeholders, including grassroots Non-Governmental Organizations(NGOs) operating urban and remote communities in Ghana. The foremost role of grassroots NGOs would  be collecting, analyzing and disseminating accurate data on youth unemployment in communities they operate in. There are concerns that unemployment numbers put out by government agencies are not accurate. Community-by-community data from these NGOs will give a better picture of the skills set and inadequacies of Ghana’s young labor force.

The second role of the NGOs in the fight against joblessness would  be providing input to agenda setting and policy development processes. Key among the issues that must be pushed into the policy statement is widespread and sustained employment creation initiatives for   young women in Ghana and laws that protect women in the workplace.

 NGOs can also raise funds to organize vocational and technical training programs that would equip young people with skills and capital that will empower them to   start their own businesses. Grassroots NGOs can  use advocacy to mobilize public support for policies and initiates that will prioritize the empowerment of young people with quality education training and decent employment. 

 NGOs  would  also have the responsibility of monitoring and evaluating policy initiatives implemented to reduce youth joblessness in their local communities and across the nation.