A deputy National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edem Agbana has discounted a claim by a former minister that the NPP government has created three million jobs.
Employment and Labour Relations Minister-designate, Ignatius Baffour Awuah who appeared on Parliament’s Appointment Committee Wednesday could not explain the number of jobs created in the various sectors.
“Although I had indicated before that the government had created about one million jobs, as of September 2020, when I last checked on the number of jobs we have created, we had so far created jobs for over three million jobs. And these numbers cover both private and public sector works,” Baffour Awuah noted.
He promised to make the data available to Parliament later but before that happens, Agbana believes Baffour Awuah lied before the committee and must be subjected to strict proof failure of which should cost him the top job.
“That should be the basis for him to be rejected,” he told XYZ Tonight host Prince Minkah.
He said Awuah’s data was not correct because in September 2020 his party led by Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia made a similar pronouncement claiming their government had created 2 million jobs which the NDC fact-checked and realized it was false.
Edem Agbana stated their facts exposed the government because they had not created close to the number they put out but rather it was replacement of employees the government had done in various sectors thereby creating unemployment in the country.
For instance, the National Youth Organiser of the NPP Henry Nana Boakye at a press conference stated the Akufo-Addo government had created 778,706 jobs in the public sector and 267,939 in the formal sector.
“Government job creation programmes created 1,008,365 jobs. In all, we have 2,550,510,” Nana Boakye noted.
But Agbana said the 762,300 jobs Dr Bawumia claimed had been created from the government’s Planting for Foods and Jobs (PFJ) programme were “nonexistent” and said the data presented last September is different from the one Mr Baffour Awuah captured in his handing over notes.
Agbana mentioned the job losses in the recent banking sector crisis and blamed the Akufo-Addo government for that, saying the banks could have been saved to keep jobs.
The youth activist further blamed the dwindling trust the youth have in the country’s leadership on such “falsehoods” and charged the media to be bold to take on politicians when they tell Ghanaians lies.
