GNA Feature by Edward Acquah
Accra, Sept. 30, GNA-Two years after bagging a Degree in Political Science from the University of Education at Winneba, Richard Mensah, 35, and visually impaired, is still rummaging for his first job after school.
He endured a torrid four-year academic journey by selling on the streets to support his education with the hope that obtaining a certificate would have bettered his chances of securing sustainable employment and perhaps starting his own family.
But his expectation is fast turning into a mirage.
“In 2021, I applied for the Ghana Education Service placement but I was unsuccessful. Only a few of my batch who completed in 2020 were successful and some of them had to do things behind the scenes to go through.
“Right now, I’m at home doing nothing not by will but because my condition will not permit me to do anything all for survival,” he said.
As he continues to write applications to private schools and wait to be recruited by the Ghana Education Service, he relies on the benevolence of friends and loved ones for survival – and that has become unreliable amid pressing economic hardships.
Graduate unemployment is a major issue in Ghana and in the absence of a national policy specifically targeting such a vulnerable population, competing for few or non-existing jobs is an uphill task for graduates who suffer different forms of disability.
Unlike Richard, Daniel Leno, 31, who is also visually impaired and holds a Degree in Education, has accepted to teach at a private Senior High School that pays him GHS200 a month.
Daniel said although his salary is woefully inadequate, he had to settle for the job to sharpen his teaching skills and sustain himself.
“When I receive my salary, I buy gari, rice and a few items to sustain myself. Life has been very difficult for me after school, but I have no option at the moment,” he said.
Daniel appealed to the Government to reserve a quota of all recruitments into the public sector for PWDs with professional qualifications.
The stories of Richard and Daniel represent that of many PWDs who had obtained academic qualifications but are unable to secure employment.
According to the Centre for Employment of People with Disabilities (CEPD), a non-Governmental Organisation that facilitates employment for PWDs, it has more than 300 PWD professionals, including PhD holders and Chartered Accountants waiting to secure employment.
“It is very difficult to secure employment for PWDs, especially in the formal sector. You contact the firms and they are not ready to employ PWDs,” Mr Alexander Kojo Tetteh, President of CEPD, told the Ghana News Agency.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines PWDs as people who have physical or sensory impairments that, when combined with other obstacles, prevent them from fully and effectively participating in society on an equal footing with others.
In Ghana, PWDs, from eight per cent translate to 2,098,138 of the population, according to the 2021 Population and Housing Census.
The United Nations estimates that about 80-90 per cent of PWD of working age in developing countries are unemployed.
Ghana is not only a party to the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but has also passed the Persons with Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715 of 2006) – but the conditions of PWDs have barely improved.
Section 9 of Act 715 for instance enjoins the Ministry of Gender and Social Protection to, through the public employment centres, assist to secure jobs for persons with disability.
According to the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations (GFD), “it is not easy” for PWDs to secure employment in the country as some employers shy away from employing PWDs because they do not have the relevant working tools, and appropriate facilities suitable for PWDs.
Mr Alexander Bankole Williams, Chairman, National Advocacy Committee, (GFD), said some professionals are unable to set up private enterprises because of the wrong perception that they may not be able to effectively deliver on their services.
“When you apply for the job, you could be invited for the interview, but once you are seen as a person with a disability, your employers feel you are too much troubling to handle,” he said.
The Federation called for the development of an employment equity policy that would compel formal sector employers to employ PWDs and ensure that there were enough incentives for that population to establish their own businesses.
Mr Francis Xavier Sosu, Member of Parliament for Madina, has initiated a Private Members Bill that seeks to set up a quota system for the employment of PWDs.
Mr Sosu, who is also a private legal practitioner, and human rights activist has been advocating for the enactment of the Employment of Persons with Disability Act, to exclusively deal with employment matters and related matters of PWDs.
Efforts to speak with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, and the National Council for Persons with Disability to contribute to the discussion proved futile.
Article 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities prohibits “discrimination on the basis of disability with regard to all matters concerning all forms of employment, including conditions of recruitment, hiring and employment, the continuance of employment, career advancement and safe and healthy working conditions.”
Interaction with the PWD community and the revelations about the discrimination they faced in job acquisition paints a bad picture for a country that ratified the Convention a decade ago.
There are thousands of PWD professionals with exceptional expertise in diverse disciplines. Employing them would not amount to doing them a favour but would contribute significantly to building the country’s human resource capacity for national development.
GNA