A GNA Feature by Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Sept 23, GNA – Ghana is a youthful country. The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) estimates that persons aged 15 to 35 currently constitute about 36.9 per cent of the population. In the 2021 Population and Housing Census, they numbered 11.78 million, representing 38.2% of the population. However, the country’s youthful population is confronting a labour market that is struggling to absorb their energy, education, and aspirations.
The latest figures tell a sobering story. Youth unemployment averaged 21.9% in the first three quarters of 2025 compared with national unemployment of 12.8%. Nearly two million young people aged 15 to 35 were not in employment, education, or training by the third quarter of 2025.
These are young people, who are postponing marriage because they cannot afford a home, graduates, who are repeatedly submitting applications for employment without receiving responses, apprentices, who finish training without the equipment or capital to establish themselves and young entrepreneurs, whose ideas remain in notebooks because they cannot access affordable finance.
There are other signs of frustration. Afrobarometer reported in 2025 that about one-third of young Ghanaians surveyed that year said they were looking for work while many young people were considering migration in search of better economic opportunities. Parliament has also heard warnings about the consequences of youth joblessness with Mr Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, Speaker of Parliament, on record describing the joblessness, homelessness and hopelessness amongst the youth as a matter that required urgent action.
It is not only the youth that suffer the consequences of joblessness. The situation also deprives the country of productivity at the very time when her youthful population could generate a demographic dividend.
The promise that brought hope
The youth question was central to the electioneering campaign message of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) during the 2024 general election. Mr John Mahama, the NDC’s Presidential Candidate during the elections, presented several proposals intended to address unemployment, skills gaps, entrepreneurship and the difficulty young people faced in moving from education into productive work.
The NDC’s 2024 manifesto promised a National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP) to provide free technical and vocational training, certification and start-up capital and equipment for beneficiaries. It also proposed the Adwumawura Programme, designed to create, track and mentor at least 10,000 youth-led businesses annually.
The party’s youth manifesto went further proposing a Young Entrepreneurs Microcredit institution with a seed fund of GH¢750 million, youth innovation and industrial parks, start-up support for artisans, a comprehensive credit system for youth entrepreneurs and an expanded apprenticeship system linked to established businesses.
The proposed 24-Hour Economy was also presented as a major job creation mechanism while the Digital Jobs Initiative envisaged large-scale investment in digital skills including the training of one million young people as coders and the establishment of regional digital centres.
Those campaign promises created expectations amongst young people, who had spent years looking for a pathway into meaningful economic activity. The challenge now is how to translate those promises/commitments into programmes/projects that are sufficiently funded, accessible, transparent, and large enough to match the scale of the problem.
From promises to programmes/initiatives but the gap remains
Since assuming office in January 2025 President Mahama’s government has introduced or advanced several youth-focused interventions notably the NAP and the Adwumawura Programme.
The NAP, officially launched in Tamale in April, last year, provides free technical and vocational training especially for young people, and it is intended to formalise and strengthen the country’s largely informal apprenticeship system. It includes a Business Growth Apprenticeship component intended to connect trainees and Technical and Vocational Education and Training graduate with established businesses/master craftsmen for mentorship and enterprise development.
The Adwumawura initiative, on the other hand, targets young people aged 18 to 35 years. It is to support at least 10,000 youth-led businesses annually through training, mentorship, equipment, and business development assistance.
These interventions are important because they recognise that not every young person will enter a conventional salaried job. However, their scale must be measured against the size of the challenge. For example, more than 200,000 young people reportedly applied for the NAP in 2025 while the 2026 budget allocation of GH¢150 million was described by Mr George Opare Addo, Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment as insufficient to meet the government’s target of training 100,000 people during the year. This means that initiatives can be well designed but still fail to transform the national situation if financing cannot match demand. The country needs interventions that do not merely reach thousands of young people but progressively reach the millions facing unemployment, inactivity and insecure livelihoods.
When the law promises money, but the money does not arrive
Another part of the youth unemployment problem that deserves serious attention is the financing of the institutions legally mandated to respond to it.
The National Youth Authority (NYA) Act, 2016 (Act 939) provides for 5% of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) to go to the NYA while the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) Act, 2015 (Act 887) provides for 10% of the DACF to go to the YEA subject to the formula approved by Parliament.
However, tracking by YEFL-Ghana, an NGO, and its Youth Budget Monitors under the Empowerment for Life Programme, has found that actual disbursements to the NYA and YEA under the DACF have consistently fallen below the statutory requirements. The tracking data showed that from 2020 to 2024, the NYA received an average of about 2.8% while the YEA received about 5.8% instead of the statutory 5% and 10% respectively. In the first quarter of 2025, they reportedly received only 0.6%. In 2026, no amount was allocated to them under the DACF.
The poor and or no funding for the two organisations affects whether district-level youth programmes/initiatives can be planned and delivered consistently. If the institutions, which are legally expected to train, coordinate, empower and create opportunities for young people, do not receive predictable financing, their ability to respond to the problem becomes severely restricted or weakened.
Indeed, in March, this year, Mr George Opare Addo, Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment told Parliament’s Assurances Committee that the NYA had received less than 1% of the DACF allocation in the preceding year instead of the statutory 5% adding that funding uncertainty had stalled youth centre projects.
Even those inside the system are sounding the alarm
Concerns over inadequate youth financing are not coming only from young people and civil society. Dr Mahama Tiah Abdul-Kabiru, Member of Parliament for Walewale, making a statement on the floor of Parliament in March, this year, raised the decline in DACF financing for the NYA and YEA and called for compliance with the statutory provisions.
The concern is also reflected in the government’s own youth portfolio. Mr George Opare Addo, Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment, has acknowledged funding difficulties affecting youth programmes. In March, this year, he attributed delays in completing youth centres to unpredictable DACF financing and said that without the statutory allocation, the NYA struggled to operate.
What is clear is that the country increasingly recognises youth empowerment as a national priority, but the institutions expected to deliver that priority continue to confront inadequate and unpredictable resources. Youth empowerment cannot be sustained on declarations alone. It requires predictable money, measurable targets, effective institutions, and accountability for results.
The 2027 Budget Statement must become a budget of renewed hope
When Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, Minister for Finance presents the 2027 National Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government to Parliament in November, this year, the youth unemployment question should occupy a central place in the national conversation.
Dr Forson has said the government’s forthcoming “New Economy” initiative will focus on job creation, wealth generation and sustainable growth. President Mahama has also said that details of the US$10 billion new economy initiative will feature in the 2027 Budget Statement.
This creates an opportunity that should not be missed. The 2027 Budget Statement should give the NYA and YEA predictable, adequate and timely financing, including serious attention to the statutory DACF allocations. It should give greater attention to young people outside of the formal economy. This means expanding support for artisans, agribusiness, digital work, creative industries, manufacturing and small-scale enterprises while reducing barriers to registration, taxation, credit and market access.
More importantly, funding should follow outcomes. Every major youth programme should have clear targets for employment, enterprise survival, income growth, women and disability inclusion, rural participation and additional jobs created.
Young people do not simply need another announcement. They need the resources behind the announcement.
Halfway through the mandate, the choice is whether to deepen hope or deepen frustration
The country has reached the point where youth empowerment cannot remain in an annual budget slogan. With the government moving into the second half of its four-year mandate, the question is whether young people will experience a tangible improvement in economic opportunity before the government’s tenure ends.
The answer will depend partly on what the 2027 Budget Statement chooses to prioritise. If statutory youth funds are fully honoured, if flagship programmes are properly financed and monitored and if private sector job creation is supported, the 2027 Budget Statement can become a statement of confidence for the young people of the country.
A young population is an opportunity only when the economy gives that population somewhere to go. For thousands of Ghanaian youth, who are standing at the door of opportunity, the 2027 Budget Statement must not merely tell them to wait but must rather provide the key that allows them to enter.
GNA/
Edited by Albert Futukpor
Writer’s Email: [email protected]