We will lay off people in the public sector – Osafo-Marfo

The Senior Minister of Ghana, Honourable Yaw Osafo-Marfo says the Ghanaian public sector with respect to employment is full above its maximum capacity and called for the need to focus on growing the private sector.

Speaking at the Ghana Economic Forum on Monday, August 7, 2017, the Senior Minister backed his point by encouraging the training of ‘technical brains’ and admonishing everyone to have a mind-set of growing the private sector in Ghana.

“The public sector is full. We may even have to lay some off,” Honourable Yaw Osafo-Marfo said.
“They (university graduates) only find jobs if the private sector grows, if the private sector expands, if the private sector becomes prosperous.
“If we do not get our mind-sets in this direction, then we are heading for trouble as a country.
“Most people coming out of our universities are not technical brains. Most of them are in the humanities.
“It is very expensive for the private sector to put up a credible technical university. So most of the private sectors go into the training of marketing, sociology, economics. Those subjects can be easily taught without expensive laboratories and workshops.”

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The Minister gave a practical example of how Ghana could go in a bid to have a Ghanaian-owned economy, releasing the pressure currently on the public sector.

“If our economy was to go on a tangent like the German economy has gone, then the public sector will not be the place to look for a job. If you leave the university, you would be looking for a job in the private sector or by virtue of the training you have, you will be employing yourself.

“This is how we should all see the development of this nation.”
Yaw Osafo-Marfo was speaking at the Ghana Economic Forum themed, ‘The Ghanaian-Owned Economy: 60 Years After Independence’. The two-day event is to have strategic thinking through interactive discussion and debate from personalities and leading experts from the African and international corporate communities with respect to growing Ghana’s economy.