Nana Addo vows to tackle graduate unemployment

New Patriotic Party (NPP) Presidential Candidate for the 2016 general election, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has promised to tackle graduate unemployment head-on when given the nod to become President.

Nana Addo, who is thus asking for the support of students across the country to change what he calls Ghana’s dwindling fortunes, says the era of graduate unemployment will come to an end if the NPP is elected back into office.

He gave the promise in an address to some students of the University of Development Studies (UDS) in Navorongo during his ‘Rise and Build’ tour of the Upper East Region.

Nana Addo said he will lead a major paradigm shift through industrialization by adding value to Ghana’s raw materials to eventually create jobs for the teeming unemployed graduates.

“Imagine a Ghana where we have a modern agricultural economy; where we have year-long agricultural activities in the northern sectors and all through our country; where we are an exporting country of foodstuff, raw or value-added to the rest of West Africa and Africa.

“Sixty to seventy percent of our foreign receipts come from the export of industrial and agricultural produce from Ghana; imagine situations where when you leave here people are coming to you to ask you what job you would like to do.

He added “in your last year here, people from industry and commerce will come here to ask you what jobs you want in their enterprises because we have a country that is working; a country that is buoyant; a country that is growing; that is the Ghana we are fighting for.

"We want to leave behind this Ghana of non-performance, a Ghana which is sinking into the ground; where there are no jobs for young people; where our farmers cannot work because they don’t have access to affordable inputs and fertilizers”.