A think tank, Platform for Economic Research (PER) has lambasted the Petroleum Commission of Ghana for its failure to create thousands of jobs by recruiting youth to fulfill the Akufo-Addo government’s Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity (AOGC) programme started in 2017 compared to the Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCO) which is doing far better after coming on stream a year later.

According to the Lead Researcher for PER, Mr. Francis Apenteng Bonsu, the Petroleum Commission at the 2018 Local Content Fair said the AOGC program will train and equip 1,000 youth a year with Oil and Gas skills which came with the possibility of employment in the industry.

“Three years on, the AOGC program has only trained 5 people out of 3,000 potential trainees translating into 0.16%, a clear failure”, he lamented.

He argued that the Accelerated Oil and Gas Capacity AOGC program could have been a “huge game-changer” for the Akufo-Addo government and even better than NABCO when it came to solving “youth unemployment and employability which Akufo-Addo promised to do. The President must be interested in ensuring the people he tasks with jobs are delivering.

On the contrary, he rated the Nation Builder as “excellent” because it has “ameliorated the unemployment situation the government inherited drastically”.

The Think tank lead Researcher urged President Akufo-Addo to extend its duration for another 2 years in order for new graduates to have the chance to benefit from it.

Mr. Apenteng Bonsu made these comments on the sidelines of a virtual job fair which focused on job creation under the 1st term of President Akufo-Addo and expectations for the President’s 2nd term.

According to him, the number of unemployed people in Ghana was estimated at over 1.2 million as of March 2017 translating into a total unemployment rate of 11.9%, which has 714,916 females, representing 57.2 per cent, and 535,997 males, representing 42.8 per cent hence the decision of President Akufo-Addo to roll out job and skill-based programs as part of the Agenda for jobs.

The AOGC was established in November 2017 with the intent to enhance the capacity of Ghanaians to enable them to work in the oil and Gas sector. The program is supposed to be in effect for 5 years and aims to train individuals in various technical and vocational areas, build the capacity of educational institutions to be able to train students and provide internationally recognized training certificates, provide business and management training for SMEs, and to ensure the continuous professional development of employees of various public institutions connected to the oil and gas industry.

In four years, under the oversight of the Petroleum Commission, only 5 people have been trained while almost 10,000 youth are reportedly interested.

The Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) programme is an Akufo-Addo government initiative to address graduate unemployment to solve social problems. The focus of the initiative is to solve public service delivery challenges in health, education, agriculture, technology, governance and drive revenue mobilization and collection. So far over 100,000 graduates are benefitting.