Governments the world over – Ghana no exception – are faced with the daunting task of finding jobs for the millions of young people who would be seeking means to earn a living. According to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 400 million young people would join the global labour force over the next decade, warning that joblessness and rising commodity prices could spark conflicts. He says creating jobs must be a top priority not only in the advanced economies, but also in many poorer countries, where rising food and fuel prices in recent months have already hit the economies. Crude oil price has steadily climbed since August 2010 when it was just over $70 a barrel, as the economic recovery has lifted global demand. Today, the price of Brent crude oil passed $100 a barrel for the first time since October 2008 on concerns about the political unrest in Egypt. This perhaps is a major concern for Ghana, where the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) recently announced a 20 to 30 percent increase in local pump charges, at a time world crude oil was hovering around 90 dollars a barrel. Local economic watchers say there are implications for the Ghanaian economy, especially the manufacturing sector, should the price of crude oil keep rising. Speaking in an interview with Luv FM, Newlove Asamoah of the KNUST Business School noted “the only way government can mitigate the effect is if the government intervene by not transferring all the cost to the consumer. But it’s difficult when the country is debt-ridden like Ghana where there are introducing TOR debt to recover some of the debt”. He suggests government comes out with other ways of helping industry “like forming a consortium so that they can have a way of reducing the oil prices for those who are going to buy for the industries. One other way is for the government to increase the minimum wage for people who are working, so that even if they pay for petrol prices they’ll still have something left to patronize the goods that will be produced in the country. “Also if we can produce more oil in Ghana so that probably if we’re buying from our own country and the price is lower that the world market, then it will help us a little”. Most businesses in the country rely on fuel-based generators to power their plants for production, which is expensive than using the national grid. Productivity is therefore affected which manufacturers are unable to finance the high cost of fuel, resulting in low output and culminating in lay-offs and freeze on employment. Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/Luv Fm/Ghana