Mr Speaker, it is a pleasure to have this opportunity to present a Statement on another critical national issue, which is the impact of entrepreneurship on the global economy, and a need to consider that as a course in both Ghana’s junior high school and senior high school academic curricula.
Mr Speaker, entrepreneurship is the ability to set up a new business venture and develop one’s own business with the intention of making profit instead of rely on ones already created by another individual or corporate body.
Mr Speaker, there are a number of compelling reasons for the above proposition to be accorded the needed national and Executive attention. Entrepreneurship has played a remarkable role and indeed become an integral part of the global economy. It has impacted the economy by creating jobs, stimulating economic stability, and reducing poverty in the world. The job market in Ghana, Mr Speaker, is congested, leaving most of the youth in an undesirable employment space. The unemployment rate in Ghana has tremendously contributed to most of the antisocial behaviours in Ghana, including insecurity, robbery, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Mr Speaker, the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research’ (ISSER) data indicate that only about 10 per cent of Ghanaian graduates secure employment within a year of graduation. Besides, the Statistical Service indicates that graduate job-hunting duration is about five years. What it means is that it takes about five years for them to even get regular jobs. In Ghana, according to the Ghana Education Sector Report, about 109,874 graduates from the university education system annually. What it means is that only about 10,000 of this number get employed annually, leaving about an estimated figure of 100,000 unemployed graduates.
Mr Speaker, the way to go all over the world is entrepreneurship as the private sector is the engine of global socioeconomic growth. It was entrepreneurs who replaced home kerosene lamps with brighter and cleaner-burning gas in the middle to late 1800s. Those ones also were displaced by a better electric light system and later came fluorescent lighting. Entrepreneurs invent a lot of new technologies, computers, the World Wide Web, the spreadsheet, and the new improved drug technologies.
Mr Speaker, entrepreneurship is the key to dealing comprehensively with the graduate unemployment in Ghana. A lot of our talents, out of frustration, engage in a lot of illicit socioeconomic ventures and even leave the shores of Ghana in search of greener pastures. These factors have affected Ghana’s skill labour and are highly dysfunctional to the performance of our Republic. The unemployment situation has a degree of integration when it comes to insecurity and an unstable economy.
A developing economy such as Ghana, which has been endowed with a wide range of commercially viable raw materials and natural resources offer an entrepreneurial opportunity for job creation. There are, however, many setbacks to our quest to create a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ghana as a substitution or supplement policy. We have a very weak entrepreneurial ecosystem as a country. The interactions among the relevant stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem lack not only the requisite structural and functional capacity, but also the effectiveness to augment the employment capacity of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, there are a number of proposed solutions, including redefining our corporate focus as a country, governments be intentional about entrepreneurship in its major policy decisions, and realigning and harmonising the key stakeholders in the ecosystem. Apart from creating jobs, boosting Ghana’s economy, and diminishing Government’s burden, entrepreneurship, if well integrated, will go a long way to answer most of our economic questions as a sovereignty.
Additionally, it will play an illustrative role in Ghana’s import-driven agenda and realisation. The most needed solution emphasised in this Statement is the advocacy for the inclusion of “Entrepreneurship” as a course in the junior high school academic curriculum and as elective in the senior high school academic curriculum.
Mr Speaker, permit me to repeat this extract, just because it forms the integral part of my Statement. The most needed solution emphasised in this Statement is the advocacy for the inclusion of “Entrepreneurship” as a core course in the junior high school academic curriculum and as elective course in the senior high school academic curriculum. I am accordingly proposing that the relevant stakeholder bodies, particularly the Ministry of Education, take the needed steps to expedite action on the inclusion of entrepreneurship in our JHS and SHS academic curriculum. This will increase the entrepreneurship appetite of our youth to start and develop their own businesses.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for honouring me with this great opportunity. Thank you very much.