REPUBLIC OF GHANA

Republic of Ghana is located in the west of Africa with its capital being Accra.it is divided
into regions-Greater Accra region, Ashanti region, Western region, Volta region, Eastern region,
Brong Ahafo region, Upper west region, upper East region, Northern region, and central region.
In 1957 March, 6th, Britain finally granted it independence. Ghana became a member of the UN
at the same year on March 8th 1957. (Member state of United Nations, n.d., para.1).
Ghana also practices democratic system of government where by allowing citizens to elect
President, members of parliament (MP) and local government officers through the ballot.
Citizens aged 18 and above are legally allowed to vote in an election. Government is
decentralized to the ten official regions that make up the nation. Regional Ministers act on behalf
of the President in the various regions. Ghana is legally ruled on socialist structure where by
majority of the state properties are being managed by the government. Energy, water, industries,
schools are such a few example
According to Ghana statistical service, the total projected population by sex as at 2010 to 2014,
both male and female was 27,043,093. The total number of males was 13,242,709 and
13,800,384 was the total number of females. (Ghana Statistical service n.d., para. 1).
Ghana has different ethnicities and tribes. Among of few are, Akan 47.5%, Mole-Dagbon
16.6%, Ewe 13.9%, Ga-Dangme 7.4%, Gurma 5.7%, Guan 3.7%, Grusi 2.5%,MandeBusanga1.1%,other1.6% (2010census).Ghana also has several religions and its denominations.
For example; Religions: Christian 71.2% (Pentecostal/Charismatic 28.3%, Protestant 18.4%,
Catholic 13.1%, other 11.4%), Muslim 17.6%, traditional 5.2%, other 0.8%, none 5.2% (2010
census). (World Countries, n.d., para 1).
Republic of Ghana has several languages spoken by different tribes in the country or the
community. And these are the languages; Asante 14.8%, Ewe 12.7%, Fante 9.9%, Boron
(Brong) 4.6%, Dagomba 4.3%, Dangme 4.3%, Dagarte (Dagaba) 3.7%, Akyem 3.4%, Ga 3.4%,
Akuapem 2.9%, other (includes English (official)) 36.1% (2000 census).
Republic of Ghana is well known to be a mixed economy. Which comprise agricultural and
industrial. The majority of the occupation in the country is farming. She also produces several
varieties of agricultural products. For example; cocoa, rice, coffee, cassava (tapioca), peanuts,
corn, shea nuts, bananas; timber. Industries includes of mining, lumbering, light manufacturing,
aluminum smelting, food processing, cement, small commercial ship building.
Again, Ghana is one of the African countries which has a great and many different natural
resources: gold, timber, industrial diamonds, bauxite, manganese, fish, rubber, hydropower,
petroleum, silver, salt, limestone. In 2007, Ghana discovered oil and gas which has become
another source of natural resource, she depends solely on hydroelectric power as a source of its
energy.
Ghanas Gross Domestic Product as at 2013 is 48.14 billion. Ghana exports goods to countries
in the form of raw materials. Examples are, cocoa, gold, bauxite, sheanut, oil and gas, timber,
rice, banana, peanut, etc. cocoa is the largest product exported in to the foreign countries.
Ghanas main export partners in 2007 were the Netherlands (11 percent), the United Kingdom

(9 percent), France (6.2 percent), the United States (5.9 percent), Germany (4.6 percent) and
Belgium (4.4 percent).
Ghanas main import partners (2007) were Nigeria (15.1 percent), China (14.9 percent), the
United Kingdom (5.2 percent) and the United States (5.1 percent). Ghana imports mostly
industrial supplies, capital and consumer goods and foodstuffs. Its main imports partners are
China, United States, Belgium, United Kingdom and France. Ghana has been a WTO member
since 1 January 1995.
Republic of Ghana can be found in western part of Africa. On the Africa map, Ghana is in the
center of West African coast and jointly shares borders with Ivory Coast on the west, Togo on the
East and Burkina Faso to the North. Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean lies in the southern
boundary of Ghana
Ghana is considered to be developing country. It has many allies across the globe. Britain,
America, Germany, Burkina Faso, China, etc. are few examples of allies that Ghana has joint
with. Ghana doesnt align itself with countries that are terrorist. Ghana does not have enemies
because they believe in democratic system of government. Its free country that embraces every
person regardless of country, religion, beliefs, that the person practices. Geographically, Ghana
has a good relationship with different countries in terms of political. For example, Ghana has a
close relationship with Togo, she supply them with hydroelectric power.
Since independent till now, Ghana has not involved in any sort of events or conflicts that has
brought negative impact into the country. Ghana was considered to be one of the peaceful nation
in the world. They valued peace and freedom, and based on that, every creature from all walks of
life visit there.
Educational participants believe that education prepares people for employment opportunities.
Guardians ignore all the opportunity costs in educating their children and sacrifice their scarce
resources to have their children educated in the hope that education will open the gates of
employment into attractive jobs to them. Acquiring higher educational qualifications is also
believed to ease the search for employment. Yet there are thousands of young university
graduates roaming the streets daily for jobs without any success.
According to Ghana (2012), the population in the 15-24 age group has unemployment rate
of 25%, twice that of the 25-44 age group and three times that of the age 45-64 age group. The
formation of Ghana Association of Unemployed Graduates (GAUG) in recent times speaks
volumes about the intensity of the graduate unemployment canker.
Graduate unemployment is resulting in increasing poverty and low Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) of the country. It is also creating an upheaval of tension against the leadership hegemony
of the country. Extensive unemployment of school leavers diminishes the motivation to go to
school in the first place. Unemployment can also result in social unrest if it is not brought under
control. The devil finds work for the idle hands. Also, government is losing the taxes that all
these potential employees or employers should have been paying to her. These consequences of
graduate unemployment are corroborated by Hobbs (2008).

Graduate unemployment can be attributed to government policy, the academic institutions

and also due to the structure of the Ghanaian economy, which is primarily a raw material
producer. The government policy is largely to be blamed for the unemployment. Focus on nontechnical or vocational education or science and technology education is largely a contributory
factor to the graduate unemployment in the country. The focus of most tertiary institutions to
train top level management personnel instead of middle level manpower to help in industrial
production. The academic institutions can also be partly blamed for their inflexible curricula
which has been patterned after the ones handed to the nation by their British colonial masters.
This curricula largely train students to memorize information and reproduce them for marks
without much emphasis on innovative and free thinking. Since entrepreneurship is related to
innovation, most graduates who leave school without innovative skills end up unemployed and
worse of all cannot create anything noteworthy to be a business avenue. Whereas government
blames the educational institutions for churning out half-baked graduates, the polytechnics and
universities accuse government of formulating the wrong educational policy and low budgetary
support to them causing them not to function fully as they ought to. Graduates also blame
government and lending institutions for the high cost of borrowing to start a business and the
seemingly numerous requirements which must be met before securing funds from the banks.
Government is however doing all it can to reduce the impact of graduate unemployment. In
2006, the Ghana Youth Employment (GYE) program was launched to absorb the teeming
numbers of unemployed youth in the country. This helped to reduce the youth unemployment in
the country. Youth Enterprise Support (YES) fund was also launched in 2014, with a seed money
of about 3.5 million US dollars. It is a fund for providing start-up capital for graduate
entrepreneurs in the country. Science and Technology scholarships have also been established to
encourage more students to take up programs in the field so as to equip them for the needs of the
job market. Government is also preparing modalities to convert polytechnics in the country to
Technical Universities so as to train the middle level manpower that is needed for the creation of
jobs as well as able to create their own opportunities. It is a fact that more graduates are
competing for limited job avenues. Government and other concerned stakeholders therefore need
to help the graduates to establish their own enterprises.
High unemployment in neighboring countries is not helping matters, as prospective graduates
who would have otherwise travelled to those countries are left to bad fate. The influx of
foreigners into the country due to the recent oil discovery and exploration is also contributing
towards aggravating the unemployment situation.
There should be a strong collaboration between academia and industry on the skills
expectations of graduates so that academia can streamline courses on such paths. Graduates also
need a re-orientation to focus on the practical application of their studies. Furthermore,
government and financial institutions should develop financial packages with low interest rates
and long repayment periods for graduates to utilize. A National Manpower Plan to outline the
skills needed in the country at any point in time should be developed by government.
Another problem is corruption. Corruption is a threat to Ghanas economy. A country where
corruption is rampage, there is no development. Even those who are in charge to manage it
occurrences are involved. Government officials are not doing enough to educate the public and
other institutions. Corruption has really impacted on Ghanaian economy negatively. Small and
medium scale enterprises are collapsing because there are no strong institution to deal with such

situation. Government projects are been abandoned because some officials were not using proper
channel to award contract. The economy is not strong enough because the government is not
getting funds from various institutions to run the country, based on the fact those businesses can
no longer pay their taxes. In terms of implementation, Ghana government authorized all the
ministers to declare their assets to ensure transparency in all their activities.

REFERENCE

Member State. (n.d.).Member State of United State.

Retrieved from http:// www.un.org/en/members
Ghana Statistical Service. (n.d.). Census &Survey. Retrieved from http:// www.statsghana.gov.gh
World Countries. (n.d.) Ghana. Retrieved from
http://www.infoplease.com/country/ghana.html?pageno=3#ixzz3OQKm4wME
Ghana (2012). Thematic Analysis: Promoting Youth Employment. In Africa Economic Outlook
2012. Web. http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/fileadmin/uploads/aeo/PDF/Ghana%20Full
%20PDF%20Country%20Note.pdf
Hobbs, C. (2008). Enhancing Skills in the Eastern Caribbean. A Paper presented at World Bank
Institute Course on Strategic Choices for Education reform, July 14-25, Washington, DC