The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has held a Tripartite Roundtable Discussion on Productivity, Jobs and Growth in Ghana based on the Ghana Statistical Service’s (GSS) National Productivity Statistics Report.
The discussion had panelists from organised labour, employers, manufacturers, the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry, and the Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment.
It was organised under the Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work (PE4DW) project of the ILO, in collaboration with the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation.
The panelists gave diverse perspectives on Ghana’s macroeconomic policies; sectoral policies; fair sharing of productivity gains (earnings); employment, skills, and formalisation; as well as social dialogue, governance and data.
Mr David Marcos, Project Manager for the Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work, indicated that for the past three years they have been working on the project, adding that it commenced at the time when Ghana was in economic crisis.
Mr Marcos added that it aims at improving productivity and working conditions as well as looking at the sustainable components of growth in the economy.
He said while productivity was essential, working conditions were also very important, as access to the global market is linked to decent work.
Mr Luca Fedi, an Employment Specialist, gave a brief on the context for productivity and jobs in Ghana and said a look at the sectoral performance revealed that the extractive industry was performing well in Ghana.
Mr Fedi added, however, that though the extractive sector was doing well, they operated as an island, as their successes did not create the linkages to allow the economy to transform.
He noted that the overall economic transformation of Ghana has been slow, indicating that the sectors that would bring the needed transformation were manufacturing and agriculture, noting that their productivity, however, remains small in terms of employment and therefore needs some expansion
.He said in Ghana, earnings are lagging behind jobs and urged for an improvement in the minimum wages.
The panelist during the discussion agreed that Ghana needed macroeconomic stability and the need for a consensus on what that stability means and how to achieve it.
They also agreed on the importance of improving working conditions and fixing infrastructural deficits such as road connectivity for the charting of food items from the farms to the urban areas instead of leaving them to rot while food prices are high in the cities.
The panelists were Mr Kingsley Laar, an Economist and Senior Researcher at the Ghana Employers’ Association; Dr Kwabena Nyarko Otoo, the Deputy Secretary General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC); and Nana Poquah A. A. Adiamah, the National Coordinator of the Association of Ghana Apparel Manufacturers (AGAM).
The others were Mr George Amoah, the Director of Trade Research, Statistics and Information Management (RSIM) at the Ministry of Trade, Agribusiness and Industry; and Mr Theodore Mawuli Amezah, Senior Planning Officer at the Ministry of Labour, Jobs and Employment.
Source: GNA
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