Create Enabling Environment for Sustainable Growth- - President

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has charged the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to create an enabling environment for sustainable growth and high productivity for sustainable development.

The President said job creation was a priority in his government and that a vibrant private sector was required to create more jobs.

Addressing workers at this year's May Day Parade in Accra, yesterday, on theme: 'Ghana at 60, mobilizing for Ghana's future through the creation of decent jobs', President Akufo-Addo expressed concern about Ghana's huge unemployed or underemployed workforce, but was optimistic that the state of affairs would change by running an economy which ensured that there was a decline in inflation and interest rate as well as a reduction in taxes.

On the Electricity Company of Ghana Compact, he said government was taking a second look at the concession agreement to include a percentage share of 51 for the state and a cut in the years of concession, devoid of staff retrenchment.

He pledged government's determination to put an end to illegal mining and the elimination of child labour in mining and fishing communities.

President Akufo-Addo cautioned workers, especially artisans, against shoddy work resulting in the ripping off of roofs of newly-constructed buildings and of potholes on newly-constructed roads.

In his remarks, the Secretary-General of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), Dr Yaw Baah, said organized labour was ready to rally behind government in its agenda of creating not just jobs, but also decent work.

Dr Baah mentioned low wages and incentives, and the inability to afford a home after retirement as some of the challenges confronting the Ghanaian worker.

He called for the revitalization of the agriculture and textile sectors which, he said, should be factored into the One-District-One-Factory programme.

He was of the view that Ghana could develop without the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and pledged the commitment of labour unions to working closely with government, through social dialogue, to restore the hope of workers and Ghanaians as a whole.

Source: ISD (Nana Ama Bonnah & Faith Junko Edison)

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