Some tertiary students have expressed their displeasure and disagreement with the finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta over the “payroll full” statement.
The students who spoke to mynewsafric.com correspondent who went to the streets to solicit views of the students on the ministers assertions, asked Mr. Ofori-Atta to retract his statement, saying government must find creative means to create jobs.
Some have also lauded the minister for telling what they believe is the hard truth that many have refused to come to terms with but wished there are more technical courses available in the country’s tertiary institutions to train entrepreneurs.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, at a graduation ceremony at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), urged fresh graduates from various tertiary institutions to find innovative ways of becoming entrepreneurs.
According to him, that is the only way the rising unemployment rate in the country can be reduced, adding that it will help reduce the over-reliance on the government for jobs, and also reduce the burden on the government’s payroll.
Mr. Ofori-Atta explained that “That payroll is full because we are spending some 60% of our revenue on remunerating some 650,000 people. That is not sustainable.”
But the students who spoke to mynewsafric.com think otherwise. They believe if government can increase salaries of the executive and the Parliamentarians, it should be in position to create jobs for the graduates.
For instance, one of the students said “The finance minister needs to be sanctioned for saying this. Have they created a training center for people to be trained on entrepreneurship? Government payroll can never be full because they increased the salaries of parliamentarians not long ago, including the president, his vice and their wives”.
Others also feel the statement made by the minister will lure some youth into social vices like fraud and armed robbery in the country.
Those who welcomed the finance minister’s statement called on government to provide capital for graduates to enable them start up a business after school.
“The government can do better by creating more job opportunities for the youth or better still support them to start up their businesses if not, then how do they expect the youth to venture into entrepreneurship without capital“, some asked.
Another said “Most youths wish they could have their businesses because working for or under someone could sometimes be stressful but since there’s no capital to start up, they need to work under the government to gather a little capital for their start-up. Education in Ghana is also more theoretical and examination based rather than practical so it is by working under the government that we get more of the practical knowledge to run up better and profitable private owned businesses”.
