‘If all 1m job promises’re fulfilled, there’ll be no unemployment’- Prof. Bokpin

Professor of Finance and Economist at University of Ghana Business School Godfred Bokpin says the Akufo-Addo-led Administration has always promised one million jobs in all budgets delivered by his Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta but have never been fulfilled.

The latest comment by the Finance Professor, follows Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s promise during the 2021 Mid-Year-Budget-Review that government will create one million jobs for the youth.

In a sharp reaction to the 2021 Mid-Year-Budget-Review monitored by African Editors on Saturday 30 July 2021 in Accra, Prof. Bokpin said “That promise is not new. We’re sitting on a time bomb as far as unemployment is concerned. If you check the various budgets by Akufo-Addo-Bawumia-led government, you’ll see that this government has always promised to create one million Jobs in budgets. Trust me, if all 1m job promises are fulfilled, there will be no unemployment. 1 million jobs creation has always been promised in all budgets read by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta”.

Prof. noted that “We must be intentional in terms of domestically helping private sector to grow”.

“It will be difficult to achieve all targets set by government without adding to already GHC 332.4 billion public debts stock. Once government revenue remains dwarfed there is a problem. Efforts must be made to increase revenue “, he said.

Contributing to the debate, Senior Lecturer at University of Ghana’s Department of Economics Dr. Priscilla Twumasi Baffour says government must be intentional on the number of jobs to be created under specific programmes.

Meanwhile, Former Deputy Finance Minister George Kweku Rickets Hagan says the Finance Minister could not ask for supplementary budget because he has completely lost every access to borrowing including the bond market even if parliament approves it after increasing Ghana’s public debt stock to GHC 332.4billion where IMF is predicting debt distress status”.

According to him, “Parliament doesn’t give out money to Ken Ofori-Atta, we only approve for him to go and look for it and trust me, hasn’t an avenue to borrow in the current situation even if we approve. That’s why he couldn’t ask for approval “.

Source : africaneditors.com