President Mahama Calls for More Technicians to Tackle Ghana’s Youth Unemployment

Ghana needs to produce more mid-level technicians to address rising youth unemployment, says President John Dramani Mahama.

Mahama made the remarks on Saturday, December 6, during a panel session at the Doha Forum on Economic Empowerment in Africa, Pathway to Inclusive Prosperity.

He warned that industry in Ghana is not getting the technicians it needs because universities continue to graduate students in fields that do not match current job openings.

“If you go and speak to captains of industry in Ghana, they are looking for middle-level technicians, more than professors and other high academic laurels,” Mahama said.

He added: “We are not training them in sufficient numbers for the world of work. There are jobs looking for technicians, and yet you are producing more business administration graduates, more marketing graduates, more graduates in the humanities.”

According to Mahama, this mismatch helps explain why jobs exist but remain unfilled. He described the problem as “structural unemployment,” meaning that the needed skills are lacking.

To address the gap, Mahama pointed to the National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP), launched in April. The programme offers practical skills training in carpentry, plumbing, auto mechanics, agro-processing, tailoring and electrical work.

Currently, NAP targets 10,000 apprentices across Ghana’s 261 districts, with plans to scale up to 100,000 annually, including reserved places for women and persons with disabilities.

Mahama also urged that the country prepare young people for a growing digital economy. “The information we have is that by 2030, there are going to be 230 million digital jobs in Africa. We have to equip our young people with the skills to be able to take advantage of that,” he said.

He cautioned that youth without skills may be at risk of being recruited by criminals. “We have so many young people ready to be hired, to be rented by bad guys, the drug people, the terrorists, and all these criminals,” Mahama warned.

He concluded that Ghana needs stronger technical, vocational and digital training to ensure young people are ready for available jobs and can build stable livelihoods.