The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta says government has committed GH¢1.7 billion to the free Senior High School, (SHS), programme initiated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017.
According to the Finance Minister:, “The introduction of free SHS was not built on some pompous political agenda to grab social democratic narratives from those who surprisingly have shunned their ideology for quick wins.”
“For 2019 alone, a total amount of GH¢1.7 billion has been dedicated to free SHS,” he said, insisting that “President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo’s deliberate decision to provide free Senior High School, (SHS) , education to the Ghanaian youth was made with the knowledge of the costs involved.”
Mr. Ofori-Atta disclosed this at an Economic Forum organized by the Danquah Institute (DI) in Accra last Friday.
The Economic Forum was under the theme: “Bridging the gap between the formal and informal economy: The role of domestic revenue mobilization in an era of Ghana Beyond Aid.”
Adding that: “This again underlines our belief that the development of the Ghanaian individual is the most important priority of government.”
The Finance Minister said: “Across Africa, people below 24 currently make up 60 per cent of the continent’s population,” adding “that is about 1.25 billion young people. This number is expected to escalate by over 50 per cent in the next 30 years by which time the job space would have changed beyond what we know now.”
He said “it makes both economic and social sense to zoom in on education to safeguard the future of jobs rather than sitting back, clocking short term wins that make for beautiful headlines, and leaving our young ones to brace themselves for an uncertain and confused future.”
Mr. Ken Ofori Atta further stated that: “With the changing employment space, developing our human capital through quality higher education provides the necessary building blocks to our future economic survival.”
