A former Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations under the erstwhile Mahama government, Baba Jamal Mohammed Ahmed says it is a scam for the ruling government to say that it has created 2.2 million jobs since 2017.

The Deputy Minister of Labour Relations, Bright Wireko-Brobby contributing to the debate in parliament on President Akufo–Addo’s state of the nation address delivered to the house on February 20 said,

“In total, since we came into office, 2,204,397 employees have been added in the employment space. Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) accounts for about 1,593,000.” But Baba Jamal has called him out saying it is false.

In an interview on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben, the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Akwatia said, “This is a very sad deception from the deputy minister. It is very difficult to know jobs in the informal sector. Planting for food and jobs was to support farmers and didn’t create employment opportunities.”

According to him, the government only helped train farmers and provided them with supplements to aid farming and didn’t create any jobs in the informal sector especially, farming.

He challenged Bright Wireko-Brobby to provide the statistics to support his claim. “If they provided jobs, they should provide us with the statistics and figures. What has improved? If 2 million people have moved into farming, why are we facing the current economic problems in Ghana now?

Baba Jamal made known that one of the most difficult parts to compile data from is the informal sector. “We don’t know how many people are in the markets and farms. It is not easily calculated. Ghana doesn’t have complete information on the total number of people engaged in farming.

The statistical service will only give estimates. They can never give you the actual figures. So how can you say for a fact that 2 million jobs have been created in the informal sector?”

He asserted that the government made the 2.2million job creation assertion out of mere frustration. “I challenge him to come out with documents to prove that. If 2.2 million people have really gotten jobs, then things should be different. Revenue generated by the country should’ve increased too,” he reiterated.