Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has committed to improving the employability of Ghanaians through digital skills training if elected president in the 2024 Presidential Elections. As the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party, Dr. Bawumia envisions training over 1 million Ghanaian youth in modern digital technology, emphasizing that digital skills training will be a key strategy in addressing the country’s unemployment issues.
Speaking at the NPP’s Ofie Mega Walk in Akropong on Saturday, August 3, 2024, Dr. Bawumia outlined that this initiative aims to prepare the youth for both local and global job markets, enabling them to secure remote job opportunities worldwide. “You’ll be in Ghana but will be working in America, Canada, Japan, UK,” Dr. Bawumia stated, adding, “I want the youth to be employed, jobs will be my main focus. I’ll train about one million youth in digital skills, that’s where the job opportunities are. Even if you haven’t been to the university, as long as you can read and write, we’ll train you in digital skills so that you can work in other countries, while in Ghana.”
This vision aligns with an earlier announcement by his main opponent, John Dramani Mahama, who has promised that the next NDC government will train one million Ghanaian youth in coding. Mahama’s plan is part of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) agenda to bridge the digital divide in Ghana if elected. Addressing journalists in Accra on July 7, Mahama stated, “The NDC promises you this: we shall train One Million Coding Professionals in in-demand digital skills for the growing Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Knowledge Process Outsourcing ecosystems, ensuring no one is left behind in the digital revolution.”
The latest unemployment data from the Ghana Statistical Service in February estimated the average unemployment rate in the country at 14.7% as of the end of the first three quarters of 2023. This represents an increase from 1.2 million to over 1.3 million unemployed youth aged 15 to 35. The Ghana Statistical Service’s Annual Household Income and Expenditure Survey shows that unemployment among females is consistently higher than among males.
Assuming the current 1.3 million unemployed youth figure remains constant, successful implementation of Dr. Bawumia and Mr. Mahama’s agendas could potentially reduce the unemployment rate by over 76%. However, this reduction depends heavily on the effective execution of these policies to ensure that the promised training for 1 million youth leads to actual job placements.
