High Unemployment Due To Government Inability To Fight It – Akufo Addo

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the New Patriotic Party presidential candidate for 2012 has blamed soaring youth unemployment in the nation on corruption and inability of government to fight it.

He said much of the difficulties facing the country today could be traced to widespread corruption and the apparent inability on the part of the current leadership to fight it.

Nana Akufo-Addo said this at his residence at Nima on Thursday when he announced his decision to contest the New Patriotic Party’s presidential slot for the 2016 general elections.

His declaration to contest the party’s top position put to rest public speculation of his political future.

“Our people see all around them corruption, economic hardships, falling standards in education, inefficient public service system, joblessness, especially amongst the youth, and insecurity,” he said.

Nana Akufo-Addo said the depressing reality was that corruption was costing the nation jobs, as government chose to pay more money for less.

He said corruption was denying many children money to fund their education, adding, “the school feeding programme is starved of cash…contractors are not being paid…development partners are refusing to release funds to support our budget…Salaries are in arrears.”

He observed that the current economic difficulties called for efficient and honest management of public resources and projects.

Nana Akufo-Addo called on the government to make the issue of giving value for money the underlining principle for managing public funds to instil greater confidence in the economy.

He said it was vital that a comprehensive, systematic programme for industrialisation of Ghana be put in place, so that in the next decade industrial products dominated Ghana’s economy.

He suggested the need to work out the fiscal, monetary and technological incentives that could stimulate local production of goods and services by the private sector.

According to him, that was the sure way to deal with widespread unemployment and low wages.

“All of this hinges on fixing our energy situation…nothing must be spared to fix it. We cannot continue blaming an Act of God or Nigerians for our predicament,” he added.