President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that his administration has put in place several job creation initiatives to provide youth with decent employment opportunities.

He cited the establishment of the Ghanaian-European Center for Jobs, Migration, and Development as one of the initiatives ensuring a further boost for the provision of decent employment opportunities

Speaking during a meeting with organised labour in Accra on Tuesday, August 20, President Akufo-Addo said “An ultra-modern four-story building currently is 95 percent complete is being constructed alongside the construction of 16 new public employment centers and the refurbishment of forty others across the country.

The government has also enhanced the mobility of labour officers by providing 80 motors,  four SUVs and twenty-one pickup vehicles for their use.

“The establishment of the Ghanaian-European Center for Jobs, Migration and Development is a further boost for the provision of decent employment opportunities particularly for young people seeking to migrate or return from abroad.  The youth employment agency has also been reformed and repositioned to facilitate job creation.  for our teeming youth. In 2024 alone, 84,138 aid beneficiaries were aged under various models of the program.

“Since 2017 a total of 700,947 have benefited from the  YEA’s initiative. These achievements would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of organized labour.”

President Akufo-Addo further described the controversies that the attempt to sell the hotels belonging to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) generated as unnecessary.

Mr Akufo-Addo said this after making reference to the the GHS230 million surplus on  SSNIT’s operations.

“Take note of the improved performance of SSNIT which recently announced a surplus of GHs 230million on its operations, this should be reassuring to organised labour and perhaps bring into sharper relief the unnecessary controversy that was recently generated by SSNIT’s efforts to load non-performing assets in its hotel portfolio,” he said.

He added “All of us need to be measured when it comes to making decisions of pronouncement that will affect the long-term interests of pensioners.”

Recently, the Management of SSNIT told former Chief Justice Sophia Akuffo that she made an unsubstantiated allegation regarding the botched sale of the hotels.

Madam Sophia Akuffo had accused the manager of SSNIT of deliberately running down the hotels just to sell among themselves.

Sophia Akuffo made this claim in an exclusive interview with TV3’s Alfred Ocansey on Thursday, July 25.

“Of course, SSNIT will justify it because they have run down the hotels and just like in the public sector a lot of public properties have been run down just so that the value will be run down and always at the end of some cycle or the other they do sweet heart deals and do this distribution among themselves,” she said.

However, SSNIT in a statement issued on July 29 reacting to the comment by Sophia Akuffo said the allegations by the former Chief Justice are “false and undermines the integrity and confidence in the Pension Scheme.”

In contrast to the former Chief Justice’s claim, SSNIT said it restructured the ownership of the hotels, brought in private hotel management companies, made changes in management and the Board where necessary, provided financial support, including the funding of maintenance and capital expenditure to make the hotels more competitive.

SSNIT proceeded to reiterate its justification as to why it decided to sell its shares which has now been terminated.

“As we have previously noted, although we have seen some improvement in the performance of the hotels, this has been far below what we require to finance growth and capital expenditure. Returns had been low or negative, and most of them had been making persistent losses and not paying dividends. Hence, the steps to bring in a strategic investor, which we have now terminated,” SSNIT stated.

“We wish to emphasise thatthe allegations of deliberate mismanagement of SSNIT hotels are false and undermines the integrity and confidence in the Pension Scheme. Allegations of this nature, without substantiated evidence, create unnecessary tension among stakeholders and potentially detract the public from the constructive dialogue needed to address genuine issues,” SSNIT added.

SSNIT assured pensioners, contributors and the public of its commitment to managing the assets of the Trust in a manner that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the Scheme.

It could be recalled that SSNIT on Friday, July 12 announced to the public the termination of the controversial sale of the shares in the hotels after several opposition from various stakeholders.

“The Board and management of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT)  wish to inform the public that the process to divest 60% of SSNIT’s stake in the hotels has been terminated,” Board Chair of SSNIT Elizabeth Akua Ohene said in the statement.