Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah, MP for Manhyia South and Vice Chairman of the Subsidiary Legislative Committee of Parliament, has described Ghana as a nation in crisis due to persistent youth unemployment, warning that politicians must stop exploiting the vulnerability of young people and focus on lasting solutions.

Speaking on the AM Show on March 16, Nana Agyei Baffour Awuah said the unemployment challenge should be viewed from a broader national perspective rather than through partisan political lenses.

“When discussing this issue, we should not take it from the perspective of the feelings of government. We must look at the bigger picture, which is that we are really a nation in crisis,” he said.

According to him, the unemployment problem has existed for years and has remained a major concern regardless of which political party is in power.

He recalled that when President John Mahama appeared before Parliament to deliver his inaugural State of the Nation Address, he indicated that about two million Ghanaians were unemployed.

“President Mahama informed the House that we have about two million Ghanaians who are unemployed,” Nana Agyei stated.

He noted that the situation had already reached worrying levels even before the change of government in 2017.

“When President Mahama left office in 2017, it was acknowledged that unemployment among the youth was already a crisis. Some Ghanaian youth even formed an organisation called the Unemployed Graduates Association,” he added.

Nana Agyei said when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) assumed office, it introduced the Nation Builders Corps (NAPCO) programme to help manage the unemployment challenge.

“In its quest to manage the situation, the government introduced NAPCO, and in excess of 800,000 youth subscribed to it with the long-term view of being absorbed into the economy,” he explained.

However, he noted that the programme was later put on hold following the COVID-19 pandemic and Ghana’s engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“Post-COVID, we had a crisis and had to go to the IMF, and because of that we needed to put a hold on NAPCO. Clearly, the crisis of unemployed youth persisted,” he said.

He added that expectations were raised again when the government announced plans to recruit more personnel into the security services and extended the recruitment age limit from 25 to 35 years.

“The moment you extend the age range, you are likely to cover more people than before,” Nana Agyei said.

He noted that the promise of a 24-hour economy further heightened expectations because many believed the policy would introduce additional work shifts and create more employment opportunities.

“People expected that if you had about 5,000 spaces before, with three shifts under a 24-hour economy you could have as many as 15,000 spaces,” he said.

According to him, it was therefore not surprising that about 500,000 young people applied for the security service vacancies.

But Nana Agyei described the reported GH¢200 application fee as troubling.

“The government charged GH¢200 for each applicant. For me, that is very unfortunate. It looks like we are exploiting the vulnerability of the Ghanaian youth,” he said.