Govt to create more jobs

11/09/09

Story: Musah Yahaya Jafaru
THE maiden edition of “Matters Arising”, a platform conceived to bring governance issues close to the people, opened in Accra yesterday with strong signals that the government’s Better Ghana Agenda was on course.
With job creation as part of the agenda’s main pillars, a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who addressed the forum, said the government was to create employment for 10,000 graduates, skilled and unskilled persons, through a public-private sector partnership in the oil industry.
Under the initiative, a core group would be trained in the management of oil spillage at sea, while the unskilled persons would be engaged to constantly clean the country’s beaches from Aflao to Elubo and plant coconut trees along the beaches, as a way of improving sanitation in fishing communities.
Mr Ablakwa said already the trainers of trainers had received training in Nigeria and would be training another set of supervisors and trainers in the management of the oil spillage.
The maiden edition of the periodic press conference to give Ghanaians a status report on the Better Ghana Agenda of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government also highlighted the government’s commitment to the fight against drugs, the Youth in Agriculture Programme and support for the educational sector.
Mr Ablakwa said the multi-ministerial and private sector partnership being co-ordinated by the Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology would ensure the transfer of technology to Ghana for the development of the local capacity in the oil industry.
“The transfer of expertise and technical capacity to the local staff would ensure the building of the needed capacity to support the oil industry in line with the NDC government’s objective of developing the human resource capacity of the people,” he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the improvement of the sanitation situation at the beaches would promote tourism, and indicated that since all the persons who would be engaged in that effort were from the various communities, it would improve the financial situations of thousands of families.
He said the employment opportunities that would be created would go a long way to support NDC government’s short-term objective of promoting and creating productive employment opportunities in all sectors of the economy.
“Clearly, the John Atta Mills government is on course, despite the difficulties caused by the poor management of the economy by our predecessors, resulting in huge deficits and undisclosed arrears,” he said.
Touching on the government’s fight against drug, Mr Ablakwa said the President John Atta Mills administration was on course to redeeming his campaign pledge that he would not allow the country to be turned into a haven for the trade in narcotics.
He said the government had initiated effective and practical steps towards dealing with the drug menace. He mentioned skills training, exposure to modern techniques in fighting narcotics drugs and plans to transform the Narcotics Control Board into an autonomous Commission as some of the steps that were yielding results.
“Today, there is not that perception as it was in the past that some powerful people in government may be collaborating with drug barons,” he said, and noted that some arrests had been made, including the successful management of security information leading to the arrest of a ship and seizure of parcels of cocaine on board.
Besides, Mr Ablakwa said, many people had been arrested for having parcels of cocaine concealed in tubers of yam, or heroin swallowed for discharge at their final destinations.
He said structures had been put in place to ensure that seized exhibits “do not either vanish or metamorphose into some other substance overnight”.
Mr Ablakwa said the Youth in Agriculture Programme was growing steadily, and indicated that some youth had cultivated 1,440 hectares of land in Damango in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region under the programme and that more than 300 youth of the area were working on the Block Farm Concept at Damongo.
He said 100 hectares had been ploughed in Komenda and ready for planting, 30 hectares in Gomoa West, 72 hectares in Gomoa East and 40 hectares in Agona East.
“When fully operational across the country, a total of 14,000 hectares of land is expected to be on cultivation under the Youth in Agriculture Programme. And more than 20,000 job opportunities, some periodic, will be created. For this programme, the government has provided GH¢10.7 million ”, he said.
Mr Ablakwa said the required feasibility study and detailed designs for the first phase of 5,000 hectares under the Accra Plains Irrigation Project would be ready by the end of the year.
Up north, he said, the government was rehabilitating 70 breached dams in the three northern regions, which, when completed, would put 360 hectares of land under irrigation.
The Government has approved the construction of two fishing harbours and 12 landing sites at the cost of $200 million, saying that the government was sourcing funds for the project.
To reduce post-harvest losses, six cold stores would be built in selected fishing communities with a seven- million euro facility from the Spanish government.
Mr Ablakwa said two of the expected six patrol boats for the Ghana Navy were expected in December this year, and stressed that the boats would help the Ghana Navy to enforce fisheries laws and also protect fishermen from the activities of pair trawlers.
He said the government had offered 50 per cent subsidy of fertilisers as a result of which GH¢10 million had been released to support the subsidy payment.
In its bid to improve capacity to produce rice locally, Mr Ablakwa said the government would plant rice on the irrigated lands while it continued to support the Nercia Rice Production in the northern sector and cultivation of a further 700 hectares of rice farm.
“This will be adding to the Aveyime rice farm which should be releasing their rice onto the market soon, and the 200 hectares being cultivated under the Youth in Agriculture Programme,” he said.
Focusing on education, the deputy minister said the government was still committed to ensuring the right of every child and young person to quality education, hence the on-going efforts to expand physical infrastructure, motivate teachers and make logistics available.
For instance, he said, President Mills had ordered a 50-per cent increment in the Capitation Grant per pupil in addition to planned supply of free exercise books, two free pairs of school uniforms each to pupils in selected districts at the cost of GH¢11 million with another GH¢13 million for the Ghana School Feeding Programme.
Mr Ablakwa said the government had decided to pay the full tuition fees for all teachers who would be pursuing further studies through distance learning, beginning from the next academic year.
That, he said, was part of the government’s efforts at motivating teachers to stay in the classroom but at the same time improve themselves academically.
He said the government had confirmed its commitment to science and technology education with the introduction of 41,000 scholarships accessible to mathematics and science students.