The Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment has partnered with the Global Africa–ACP Chamber of Trade and Investment (GACTI) to organise AFROMART 2026, a national employment and trade fair expected to facilitate 10,000 jobs, attract more than US$1 billion in investment interest and strengthen Ghana’s drive to tackle youth unemployment while advancing trade and investment.
The partnership was formalised through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aligning the initiative with the government’s National Employment Policy, the 24-Hour Economy agenda and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
According to the Ministry, AFROMART 2026 will combine a trade exhibition, a large-scale job fair and an investment forum to create opportunities for employment, business expansion and capital mobilisation. Organisers expect the event to attract more than 75,000 physical participants, register over 100,000 job seekers, host more than 300 employers and over 1,000 exhibitors from more than 60 countries during the 72-hour programme later this year.
Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment, Dr Rashid Pelpuo, said the partnership marks a shift from policy discussions to implementation, describing the initiative as moving from “policy statements to practical action” through what he termed a “job aggregation and deployment machine” designed to connect job seekers with employment opportunities in real time.
The Ministry said the collaboration forms part of broader government efforts to address unemployment, particularly among young people, with more than three million youth currently seeking work. It added that the designation of the event week as the National Week of Employment underscores the government’s commitment to making employment creation a national priority.
Beyond the physical event, the initiative will establish a digital employment platform to provide continuous job matching services between employers and job seekers.
Global President of GACTI, Prince Davidson, described the platform as a “permanent infrastructure for employment matching,” indicating that it would use artificial intelligence-powered job matching to connect applicants with opportunities in Ghana and international markets, including Europe, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Caribbean and the Americas. The platform will also provide interview scheduling, skills assessments and employer engagement services, with the initial 10,000 jobs serving as “just the beginning” of a longer-term employment pipeline.
The Ministry noted that AFROMART’s three-pillar structure, covering trade and SMEs, employment and investment, is intended to create an integrated ecosystem that supports business growth, job creation and investment promotion simultaneously.
