Baffour-Awuah says Ghana government has created three million jobs in four years

Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister-designate for Employment and Labour Relations, says as of September 2020, the Akufo-Addo-led government had created three million jobs since assuming office in 2017.

The figure comprised both public and private sector employments and promised to provide detailed statistics of the various sectors to the Appointments Committee of Parliament.

Mr Baffour-Awuah made this known when he appeared before the Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Wednesday, for vetting.

He noted that the formal sector employed about five per cent of people in the country and the informal sector accounted for over 80 per cent.

“Although I had indicated before that the government had created about one million jobs in May 2020, but as of September 2020, when I checked on the number of jobs we have created, we had created over three million jobs, and these numbers cover both private and public sector works,” he said.

The Minister-designate stated that government had set aside GH¢50 million seed capital for the establishment of the Unemployment Fund to support people who lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He assured of government’s determination to ensure that casual workers who lost their jobs receive appropriate compensation from their employers.

Commenting on embargo placed on recruitment of workers to the Gulf State, he said, he had sent a memo for the lifting of the embargo and when given the nod, he would present the issue before Cabinet for consideration.

He said since the placement of embargo on recruitment of Ghanaian workers to the Gulf State, government of Ghana had engaged authorities in those countries to halt the abuses and exploitation of Ghanaian domestic workers there.

Also, government had put in place modalities to ensure proper registration and regulation of recruitment agencies that recruit workers to the Gulf States.

The Minister-designate answered questions relating to pension schemes, unification of security pension schemes, unfair treatment of workers, graduate unemployment, the banking sector clean-up, and measures to implement the GH¢100 billion CARE programme, among others.

Source: GNA