Make job creation central to policy  – NDPC

The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) has called on the government to prioritise job creation in its economic policies.

It said recent economic growth had not translated into meaningful employment opportunities for Ghanaians.

It said although the economy had recorded improved growth in recent years, sectors with the potential to generate large-scale employment had remained weak, resulting in what it described as “jobless growth”.

Launching the 2025 National Annual Progress Report in Accra yesterday, the Chairman of the NDPC, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, said the country’s recent economic performance had failed to deliver the jobs needed to improve livelihoods.

“We expected industry to play a major role in our economic transformation and create the jobs we need. Unfortunately, the data shows that this did not happen. The growth we are seeing is largely jobless growth,” he stated.

Dr Thompson explained that the industrial sector, expected to drive Ghana’s structural transformation, contracted in 2021 and 2023 and recorded only modest growth in subsequent periods.

He noted that the sector’s strongest performance was recorded in 2024, driven largely by increased gold production, while the manufacturing and oil and gas subsectors remained sluggish.

According to him, growth driven mainly by extractive industries could not generate sufficient employment because mining was highly capital-intensive and depended more on machinery than human labour.

Dr Thompson also highlighted what he termed “growthless jobs”, where many people were engaged in low-productivity activities that contributed little to national output.

He said although more than 80 per cent of Ghana’s workforce was employed in the informal sector, it contributed only about 27.7 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“We should not assume that economic growth automatically creates jobs. Likewise, jobs that generate very little value do not necessarily contribute to economic growth,” he stressed.

Using petty trading as an example, Dr Thompson said many Ghanaians were sharing limited economic opportunities instead of participating in productive enterprises capable of creating wealth and improving living standards.

To address the challenge, he said the Commission was refining its planning framework to place greater emphasis on productive employment alongside economic growth.

He disclosed that future national planning would assess economic performance using output-based, expenditure-based and production-based approaches to provide a more comprehensive picture of the economy.

Dr Thompson explained that the annual report drew on progress reports submitted by ministries, departments and agencies, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, as well as regional coordinating councils, which were subjected to rigorous technical review before publication.

The Director-General of the NDPC, Dr Audrey Smock Amoah, said the 2025 report marked the final annual assessment under the Agenda for Jobs policy framework.

She explained that from 2026, national performance would be assessed under the government’s new development framework, which focuses on resetting the economy, creating jobs, strengthening accountability and promoting inclusive growth.

Dr Amoah said all ministries, regional coordinating councils, and metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies had aligned their development plans with the new framework.

BY KINGSLEY ASARE

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