56.4% of Ghanaians still poor; unemployment is gunpowder – Martin Kpebu warns after World Bank report
Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has described Ghana’s unemployment situation as “gunpowder” that could explode if urgent steps are not taken to address it.
Speaking on TV3’s Key Points on Saturday, August 29, Kpebu referenced a World Bank report which indicates that 56.4% of Ghanaians remain poor despite recent economic growth.
“Too many people are unemployed; that is gunpowder,” Kpebu said.
“This is scary; even when you are in your car, it is not safe. We have to do something urgently about unemployment,” he added.
His comments follow the launch of the World Bank Group’s 10th Ghana Economic Update, where the Division Director for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Dr Robert Taliercio O’Brien, revealed that poverty remains widespread with widening spatial disparities.
“56.4% of Ghanaians remain in poverty. And spatial disparities are widening,” Dr Taliercio O’Brien said, pointing to a disconnect between headline economic performance and the living conditions of the population.
According to the World Bank, Ghana’s recent growth has not translated into broad-based improvements in living standards.”… a disconnect between the headline growth that is yet to reach most of the population,” Dr Taliercio O’Brien remarked.
He further noted that growth is being driven by sectors with limited capacity to absorb labour, at a time when Ghana’s young population is rapidly entering the job market.”
Growth is led by sectors with limited employment absorption relative to its growing young population entering the labour market in the next decade,” he said, describing it as “a structural imbalance that also demands urgent attention.”
About The Author
