By Bright Agamah.
The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union, ICU – Ghana, says the government should focus on Cocoa, Hospitality, Textiles and Metal Sectors as part of efforts to enhance job opportunities for Ghanaians in the 2022 budget. In the view of the ICU, these sectors of the economy cut across private and public institutions and with the appropriate government support, they can contribute to reduce the unemployment figures.
General Secretary of ICU, Morgan Ayawine, made the point at a media briefing on the expectations of the Union in the 2022 budget. He was flanked by the Deputy General Secretary for Operations, Emmanuel Benimah and Deputy General Secretary, Administration, Samuel Ananga.
Mr. Ayawine asked the government to use the 2022 Budget to fast track interventions that will create a broad-based enabling environment for more jobs in the formal and informal sectors of the economy.
”The Cocoa Sector Buying Companies, the LBC’s and all that. They are spread across the length and breadth of this country and are given the right support from the government. We believe they can increase Job opportunities in this country.
Another area is the Textile Sector, the olden days they were employing about one hundred and something thousand but today the number that is left is nothing to write home about. Today we are today talking about GTP. We are talking about Volta Textile Company Limited. We are talking about Akosombo Textile Company Limited, but we used to have more than 20 Textile Companies in this country and we come to the hospitality sector of the economy. The hotels, restaurants and all that, they can also help to increase Job opportunities and the metal sector, talking about the steel companies, VALCO, ALUWORKS, these companies need government intervention. We are trying to engage the government to talk about bail out for some of these organizations”, according to Mr. Ayawine.
The ICU leadership said it is regrettable that Public and Private institutions are embarking on redundancies, in the face of increasing unemployment in the country.
Another issue of concern to the ICU, is the inability of the government to respond positively to the Union’s appeal to abolish overtime tax which it described as a nuisance tax.
