News:
June 11, 2026
Rising youth unemployment in Ghana has reached critical levels, with nearly one in two young people in the Greater Accra region now jobless, Parliament has heard.
Delivering a statement on urgent national importance, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, MP for Ofoase-Ayirebi, cited data from the Ghana Statistical Service showing youth unemployment for those aged 15 to 24 rose from 32 percent in December 2024 to 32.5 percent by the third quarter of 2025.
In Greater Accra, the situation is even more dire, with youth unemployment reaching 49.3 percent in Q3 2025 – meaning nearly one in every two young people in the capital region is out of work.
The MP further revealed that seven out of every ten unemployed Ghanaians are under the age of 35, with 1.34 million young people aged 15 to 24 classified as Not in Education, Employment, or Training. When extending the definition to age 35, that figure rises to 1.95 million.
“The unemployment problem in this country is not a general problem with a youth dimension. It is a youth problem, and the burden is getting worse,” Oppong Nkrumah told Parliament, adding that no government has fully solved the issue.
He raised concerns about the effectiveness of current government initiatives, noting that the One Million Coders Programme received over 90,000 applications in 48 hours but its website went offline before being relaunched with only 30,000 places in the first cohort. He also revealed that the Adwumawura Programme had awarded grants to just 475 entrepreneurs, against an annual target of 10,000 businesses.
The MP highlighted a tragic recruitment drive in November 2025 where 21,000 young people converged on El-Wak Stadium for just 2,000 Ghana Armed Forces slots, resulting in six deaths and five others requiring intensive care.
Oppong Nkrumah called for an urgent new job creation strategy anchored to published delivery scorecards, separating skills creation from job creation, shifting to private capital mobilisation, and building a credible Labour Market Information System. “Ghanaian youth do not want slogans,” he said.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com