The New Paradigm of Youth Employment in Ghana- The EZC Approach

The new paradigm of youth employment is to engender entrepreneurs who possess the requisite knowledge and skills to create jobs and be innovative in developing work processes that ensures high productivity.

High unemployment and underemployment remain a bane to the national development of several African countries. The leadership of the continent, with regards to their respective countries, have attempted several mechanisms to curb this menace; although we’ve seen strides of improvement, more needs to be done in order to put the situation under total control.

It is not in doubt the overall economic growth of a country holds the potential of creating jobs, however, the question remains to what extent does jobs created through economic stimulation impact positively on the ever-growing unemployment menace. To put our discussions in a clearer view, let’s explain the situation of employment using this simple equation:

“ Employable Population + Obsolete Jobs ≤ New Jobs Created + Retirees from Relevant Jobs.”

In order to control high unemployment, it is imperative to strike a good balance between employable population and obsolete jobs on one hand, and the creation of new jobs coupled with retiring population on the other hand. High unemployment can be said to be under control when the ability to create new jobs consistently at a high rate in conjunction with having a significant number of the population retiring from relevant jobs, outweighs the employable population plus the number of obsolete jobs in the economy. Such instance poses an ideal situation to managing and subsequently curbing the high unemployment predicament.

Amidst the dynamics of managing high unemployment; creating new jobs and minimizing the number of obsolete jobs should be the areas to be manipulated to control high unemployment. Some countries such as the United States of America over the years, have adopted monetary and fiscal policies that sort to stimulate economic activities thus, facilitating the creation new jobs and expanding old ones. Expansionary monetary policy lowers interest rates thus making it easier for businesses and individuals access funds from financial institutions. Whereas expansionary fiscal policy seeks to increase government spending or cut taxes to stimulate the economy. The ripple effect as a result of implementing monetary or fiscal policy is what is anticipated to create new jobs and cause the expansion of several others. In Germany for example, the approach of shortening work hours and the rise in part-time work led to increase in welfare as unemployment fell.

In Ghana, the unemployment situation is fairly like that of several African countries. According to a survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service (GLSS6), the employment-to-population ratios for persons 15 years and older is 75.4%, with majority of the currently employed persons (68.7%) engaged in vulnerable employment (own account workers and contributing family workers), and about 4.2 million persons (made up of 1.8 million males and 2.4 million females) are estimated to be time-related underemployed.

The various policies and programs introduced by the Ghana government aimed at curbing the high unemployment menace over the years have seen increase in job creation, nonetheless, at a slower pace. Specific reference to such government interventions includes, but not limited to: National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP)-which does provide an exit plan for beneficiaries however can further be finetuned since their support is only temporary; Nation Builders Corps (NABCO)- which is to provide temporary employment for participants for a maximum of three years. This therefore necessitates a shift from the status quo to a new paradigm that focuses primarily on job creation, innovation and expansion. The Entrepreneur with Zero Capital (EZC) concept by the African Foundation For Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (AFFEED) offers a golden opportunity for the country to leverage its high constituency of employable youth to create a pool of well-equipped entrepreneurs capable of creating jobs. The EZC concept accentuates on the possibility of entrepreneurs using readily available resources, rather than huge start-up capital, to start their own businesses. The EZC approach uses training, coaching and market penetration as the main tools to develop entrepreneurs with strong focus and direction. Participants under the EZC program are exposed to international standards and efficient ways of doing business because of the international expertise the foundation incorporates in its training and coaching model.

The new paradigm of youth employment is to engender entrepreneurs who possess the requisite knowledge and skills to create jobs and be innovative in developing work processes that ensures high productivity.

The EZC approach has yielded successful results in Ivory Coast, Cape Verde, Togo, Botswana and Liberia; and AFFEED is seeking to replicate same success model in Ghana. The impact of the EZC program in Ivory Coast cannot be overemphasized. There has been a tremendous improvement in the section of job creation as depicted by the facts gathered upon review of the program after its implementation: 60% of participants start their own companies without any external funding the week following the EZC workshop; 40% of companies created by participants survive and continue operation 6 months after incorporation; 25% of companies created by participants experience, a yearly growth rate of+33%; 45% of companies created by participants, generate jobs within 12 months.