Kofi Ofosu Nkansah, a former NEIP chief executive under the previous NPP government, has dismissed claims that President John Mahama’s youth employment programmes have improved young Ghanaians’ prospects.
In a social media post, Ofosu Nkansah argued that youth unemployment remains a national security concern despite the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) presenting its youth initiatives as a record of fulfilled promises. “Youth unemployment has worsened under John Mahama,” he wrote. His comments followed remarks from Malik Basintale, chief executive of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), who credited the President with implementing the Adwumawura entrepreneurship scheme, the 24-hour economy policy, the No Fee Stress tuition initiative and the National Apprenticeship Programme (NAP).
Ghana Statistical Service figures published in July put youth unemployment at 21.9 percent for the first three quarters of 2025, nearly double the national rate of 12.8 percent, with Greater Accra recording the highest regional figure at 31.9 percent. Nearly two million young people were classified as not in education, employment or training over the same period. Government data on the programmes Ofosu Nkansah criticised shows Adwumawura enrolled its first cohort of 10,000 young entrepreneurs after drawing more than 120,000 applications, while the National Apprenticeship Programme has onboarded roughly 14,000 people so far against a scaled-up target of 100,000, up from an initial goal of 10,000.
Ofosu Nkansah also turned his criticism on his own side of the political divide, suggesting the opposition NPP was failing to offer an alternative and risked becoming irrelevant if it did not develop clearer policy ideas of its own.
