Hon. Ridwan Dauda Abass, the former Member of Parliament for Sissala East Constituency in the Seventh Parliament, has touted the policy proposal of Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President and Presidential Candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), to train one million Ghanaian youth in digital skills for job placement.

Vice President Bawumia, as part of his digitalization agenda, has revealed plans towards equipping a million Ghanaian youth with digital skills which would enable them secure employment globally including remotely, without necessarily having to acquire a university degree.

Speaking at the sidelines of a youth conference in Wa on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, Hon. Abass said the policy would be a game-changer in the development of youth skills, promotion of employment, and reduction of youth poverty.

He said the policy would allow young people in Ghana to acquire the requisite skills and be able to apply for jobs in and outside the shores of the country where they can work remotely at the comfort of their homes.

“You don’t need to be there physically; it is just the matter of putting systems in place and you are working. It is like you have travelled outside the country, you’re in the US and you’re paying your light bill in Ghana, you don’t need to come and go to VRA office to queue and pay. That is the kind of system we are talking about,” he said.

Hon. Abass indicated that the policy would not only help in creating jobs for young people but would also support of the growth of businesses, both within and outside the country, through the availability of ready human resource.

He said there were many companies around the world in search skilled professionals but were unable to hire such professionals from other countries due to high cost of expatriation and other regularity charges.

“There are companies that want people to employ but the cost of say, we are employing you from Ghana and taking you to the US, you know, when you’re an expatriate, they pay you more.

“For instance, the companies in Ghana that have brought down expatriates like from India and other places, they pay them [expatriates] more than what they are paying the indigenous Ghanaians,” he indicated.

The former Sissala East lawmaker, thus, asserted that the implementation of such a policy would enable Ghanaian young people to land high-paying jobs elsewhere across the globe while resident in Ghana.

Hon. Abass further lauded the Credit Scoring System (CSS) policy proposed by the Vice President to allow Ghanaians acquire goods and pay in small installments over a period of time.

“When people travel outside the country and they come back, you see somebody and you say ‘your phone is nice,’ you see somebody driving a big car, most of them don’t pay cash for those things.

“The question is, take Ghana for instance, take teachers, nurses, public sector workers in general, how many of us can walk into a shop and just count 20,000 Ghana cedis to buy a motorbike?” Hon. Abass quizzed.

He, thus, asserted that a CSS policy intervention would help ease burden on Ghanaian workers and early career professionals in acquiring home appliances and personal devices that are needed to enhance their living standards.

He added that the policy would also help young entrepreneurs to acquire work equipment and tools which they might not have the financial muscle just yet to purchase those accoutrements to support their business growth.

This year’s International Youth Day celebration was marked under the theme, “From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.”