The Minister of State in Charge of Special Initiatives, Dr Rashid Pelpuo, has rated the John Mahama government’s performance on job creation B+.
According to Dr Rashid Pelpuo, the government’s performance on job creation is getting close to A” despite persistent concerns over unemployment.
The former Ministry for Labour, Jobs and Employment defended the government’s record, contending that job creation should not be measured solely by the number of people directly employed by the government.
Speaking in an interview on Eyewitness News on Thursday, August 27, 2026, Rashid Pelpuo stated, “I think we’ve gotten a B. Even B+. We’re getting close to A,” he said when asked to grade the government’s performance on job creation over the past one and a half years.
“We have a multisectoral approach to job creation and accounting for the number of jobs that are created,” he said.
He further revealed that the government was still compiling data needed to establish the exact number of jobs created since it took office.
“If I give you any number now, it would be an estimate. I have written to all the ministries and departments to give me the number of jobs that have been created so far,” he said.
“We hope that by the time we finish compiling it, we’ll be able to concretely say that we have created this number of jobs.”
However, Sherif Ghali, the President of the Ghana Youth Federation, has revealed that nearly 2 million Ghanaian youth are neither in education, employment nor training.
According to him, Ghanaian youth between the ages of 15 and 35 are without jobs, education or training.
He stressed that the situation highlights the scale of the youth employment crisis in the country, adding that youth unemployment remains significantly higher than the national average.
Sherif Ghali detailed that. Youth unemployment currently stands at 21.9%, compared with the national average of 12.8%, while the rate in the Greater Accra Region is 31.9%.
He stressed that the statistics should not be treated merely as figures, but should be understood as real challenges in securing jobs.
Speaking at the National Youth Forum on Wednesday, August 19, Mr Ghali, “Nearly 2 million young Ghanaians between age 15 and 35 are neither in education, nor employment, nor training. That is not a statistic. That is a young man in Wa who has sent out 40 applications and has not gotten any reply, not even a rejection”.
Mr Ghali cited the situation of young people who have completed apprenticeship programmes but lack the resources to establish their own businesses.
“That is a young woman in Kasoa who has finished apprenticeship, but for the past two years cannot raise 1,500 cedis to buy a sewing machine,” he said.
“A few days ago, KFC ran a promotion. The promotion said 15 cedis for chicken and fries. You saw the videos. Young people were pushing. Young people were fighting security to get inside,” he said.
According to him, the incident should prompt a broader conversation about the economic circumstances of young people.
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