A graduate unemployed nurse has dismissed assertions by President John Mahama that the economy abounds in opportunities.

If those opportunities exist at all, Adams Masawudu believes they are so far removed from the health sector.

Speaking on Joy FM's Ghana Connect program, Friday, Adams Masawudu, a graduate of the Jirapa Training College said a total of 2,241 graduate nurses, with employable skills are begging to be employed but they have received nothing  thus far.

He said the total number of unemployed graduate nurses keep increasing every year with no hope they will get employment any time soon.

His comments come a day after president John Mahama said Ghanaians who did not have jobs were the ones who lacked skills and capacity to take advantage of the growing economy.

"You would envision that as the economy grows it throws out natural jobs that people can take advantage of but if you do not have the skills or the capacity to take advantage of the growing economy then you will not feel it in your market," he said.

"…The thing is, if you say [you are not] feeling it in your pocket, it doesn’t mean that the President is going to come from place to place and count money and give to everybody to put in his pocket. The economy will provide the opportunities but it’s for the people to take advantage of them," he said.

But his comments have triggered mixed reactions from a section of Ghanaians.

Adams Masawudu said the president's comments cannot be true. He said he together with thousands of his colleagues have been left frustrated having been at home for years without a job.

He said every year the nursing institutions churn out over 8,000 students all of whom will add to the jobless nursing population.

A postgraduate student from the University of Ghana, Raymond said: "getting a job in Ghana is hell."

"Gone were the days when companies line up to poach graduates at the graduation ceremony to give them jobs," he said.

He chided the president for being "insensitive" in his comments.

On the contrary, an entrepreneur with Anyako farms, Richard, said there are indeed opportunities within the economy and challenged young entrepreneurs to take advantage of it.

He said he was able to get an amount of 50,000 cedis from the Youth Enterprise Support programme to fund his project which was worth over a million dollars.

He said the amount was woefully inadequate and would rather challenge government to give policy implementers the power to vary the terms of the policy.

He reckoned he would have gotten a bigger chunk of money for his project if the policy implementers  were flexible with the implementation of policy.

A Deputy Trade Minister Murtala Mohammed in responding to Adams Masawudu said government is embarking on a massive infrastructure project and would build more hospitals to employ the nurses.

Citing the Adaklu farms example as a testimony of the opportunities in the economy,  the Deputy Minister the economy indeed abounds in opportunities begging to be taken advantage of.

He mentioned the Rural Enterprise Development programme and other initiatives the government had introduced to empower the country's youth.

He stated however that the president's comment had been taken out of context.