Based on data collected during the 2010 Population and Housing Census, Ghana will need to generate between six to seven million jobs by 2030 in order to absorb the numerous graduates set to enter the working world, the World Bank Ghana Country Office has disclosed.
This is because the working class in the country has and will continue to increase year by year.
According to the data collected, the working age population, which falls under 15-59 years used to be around 50 percent since the 1960s but currently, it is a total of 55 percent of the entire population.
Fertility has been declining from more than six children per woman in 1971 to four children in 2008 and these combine with other demographic indicators to suggest that there will be an increasing proportion of the population in the working ages in the coming years
Country Director for World Bank Ghana, Yusupha Crookes said Ghana would face a fundamental growth challenge and that was envisaged and factored into the bank’s Country Partnership Strategy approved barely two years ago.
“One major challenge for Ghana is how to foster increased levels of productivity and investments in the non-oil (non-mineral) sectors where higher and sustained growth will serve to generate jobs beyond the relatively few ones that the petroleum sector or the mining sector can create,” he said.
Speaking at a stakeholder’s forum on manufacturing competitiveness in Accra, the World Bank country director emphasized on the need to increase productivity, lower firms’ operational costs and move from a resource-intensive growth to enhance the business environment for firms and strengthen the platform for investments in manufacturing.
Credit: graphic