Okatakyie Kwame Afrifa Mensah
Host of ‘Asempa Yetia’ on Power 97.9 FM, Okatakyie Kwame Afrifa Mensah has lambasted President Akufo-Addo and Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta over the soaring unemployment rate in the country.
His comment comes on the back of an advice from the minister to the youth to embrace entrepreneurship skills instead of waiting to be employed in the government sector.
Ofori Atta has come under fire for urging Ghanaian youth not to over-rely on the government for jobs to prevent the payroll from being overburdened.
Speaking at a graduation ceremony at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) on Friday, October 15, the minister indicated that 60 percent of Ghana’s revenue is spent on salaries and remuneration for workers on the government’s payroll, and went on to encourage youngsters to venture into entrepreneurship.
“The question then really is,” he continued, “has UPSA trained you to be entrepreneurs, and your question will be where the financing is coming from. But you do, in you, have the skills set to be able to do what you have to do.”
Ofori-Atta has been explaining the steps the government is employing to get Ghanaian young entrepreneurs to flourish without difficulties.
“That payroll is full because we are spending some 60 percent of our revenue on remunerating some 650,000 people and that is not sustainable,” he said.
But tackling the issue on his programme on Wednesday night, the vociferous broadcaster chided the Minister for Finance and suggested that he resigns to make way for the youth to be employed in the government sector because he had grown pass the retirement age.
“The Finance Minister should have been on retirement now but he is still in office and saying the government payroll is full so the youth should set up their own businesses,” he averred while criticising the government for gross incompetence.
To him, the old people in government should make way for the youth while the government put in measures to creat jobs in the private sector to employ the millions of Ghanaians who areb unemployed.
“The government payroll is choked with people between the ages of 60 and 71,” he said while citing GIHOC Boss Kofi Jumah, GNPC Boss K.K Sarpong, Minister for Agriculture Dr Owusu Akoto, and Prof. can’t be full for the youth not to be employed.
He further alleged that “the payroll is not full today nor tomorrow. It can’t be full while we have poeple above the pension age in the system”