According to World Bank specialist for the private sector Emmanual Awuni, Ghana’s unemployment problem is getting worse because of unfavorable company regulations.
He claimed that a significant barrier to the realization of the entrepreneurial potential of Ghanaian youth was the current regulatory framework and requirements from state agencies.
He claimed that the unfavorable business regulatory environment—which includes business registration—was discouraging young people from pursuing entrepreneurship.
3.87 percent of the population is currently unemployed, therefore this challenge, according to him, might make things worse.
He was speaking at the End Poverty Day Programme which was held at the World Bank office in Accra.
“We have seen an unfavourable business regulation framework in the country. We are looking at the entry and exit points for businesses. As a young person, you know that when you are starting a business and you want to register, it is sometimes difficult. To even exit the business has its own challenges,” he said.
Mr. Emmanual Awuni called for reforms in the regulatory framework and requirements to encourage youth to pursue entrepreneurship.
He said the World Bank (WB) aimed to eliminate the bottlenecks associated with the regulatory framework by engaging the relevant agencies to improve the regulatory quality in Ghana.
Thus, the WB had supported the Ministry of Trade and Industry to introduce business regulatory reforms to give agencies the push on how to improve regulatory governance and coordination to encourage entrepreneurship in the country.
The reforms, he said, will consequentially reduce unemployment in the country.
Mr. Awuni observed that many unemployed youths in the country lacked knowledge of career paths to pursue. He urged the stakeholders in labour and employment relations to welcome the idea of pre-employment services to reduce unemployment in the country.
He indicated that economic growth in the country had not been consistent with job creation.
He said major progress in terms of economic growth in the country was achieved in the extractive sector, and a significant number of those employed in the sector were expatriates. Therefore, the economic growth was not really creating the jobs needed to reduce the unemployment rate in the country.
Source: GNA
