Director at the Institute of Statistical, Social & Economic Research (ISSER) of University of Ghana, Professor Peter Quartey, has made a clarion call to government and accomplished Ghanaians to educate the youths that they can make a good living while staying in the country.

He noted that the youth who have bemoaned the high unemployment rate recently through staged protests such as "Fix The Country" need to be informed that there is no need to seek greener pastures elsewhere.

"They need to be motivated", he said.

For him, the country is filled with brilliant human resources who need to serve and help grow their beloved country.

Speaking on JoyNews' Personality Profile on Friday, he said: "There are brilliant young guys out there. The mentality is mainly to travel. But we could educate them and show them that there is more to just traveling. Yes, you could travel to further your education but you could earn a living decently whiles in Ghana.

"I think we need to motivate and educate some of these young ones," he told host, Ayisha Ibrahim.

Professor Peter Quartey made the plea as he shared his life experiences on the show.

Growing up as a child in Darkuman in the Greater Accra Region, he noted how Ghanaians residing in the area were faced with poverty.

For him, such an environment motivated him to keep to his books so he would not end up as a pauper.

"Darkuman is not the richest neighborhood. I was the quiet type. I saw people. It was a relatively poor community I must say. We didn't see much of development. So you'll see the harsh lives, people behaving in a certain way but I think I was very studious. I didn't relate very well with the people. I kept to my books. It is a great community with diverse backgrounds. So you learn to grow out of poverty. So you know what poverty is, how poor people live and if you grow out of poverty, how you manage your resources not to return to poverty."

When asked about his love for research that highlights inequalities and poverty, he admitted that witnessing poverty firsthand informed his choice of researching into such areas at ISSER.

"It did significantly. Because if you've lived with poor people, seen poor people and how to get them out of poverty, what inequality means to people, how to prevent civil unrest, how to make people happy, what are their challenges - it could be health, education, sometimes even lack of information."

Professor Peter Quartey is well-known for his advocacy for job creation to end youth employment.

Earlier this year, Professor Quartey called on some labour intensive industries including the tourism and agro-processing industry to provide opportunities for university graduates to nurture their talents.

According to him, this will help bridge the huge gap of youth unemployment and facilitate rapid economic growth in the country.

“Very interesting findings were made and one is that these industries have potential for generating employment and reducing youth unemployment. There’s the issue of skills gap; there’s a high skills gap which has to be addressed and one will be that the industries engage with training institutions so that by the time they graduate, they will be ready for the job market,” he said while referencing a World Bank report titled “Youth Employment Programs in Ghana: Options for Effective Policy Making and Implementation”.