Dear Senior Minister Osafo Marfo: Is The Public Sector Really Full?

On Monday, during the Ghana Economic Forum, the Senior Miniser, Yaw Osafo Marfo was quoted as saying “the public sector is full in terms of employment [and] we can’t employ anybody in the public sector”. The veteran politician even threatened that “perhaps we may have to even lay off some [workers]”.

The above assessment by the Senior Minister sent shivers down the spines of many Ghanaians. In a nation that youth unemployment is the biggest trial, the last thing citizens wish to hear is a gloomy comment by a man whom many consider as the third-in-command of His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo’s administration.

The situation is even more hurtful when one recalls that the NPP campaigned massively on the high rate of youth employment during the 2016 elections. The NPP is mainly in power because it was able to convince Ghanaian youths of its readiness to provide jobs for the people.

Therefore, the sudden change in narrative of the party comes with huge concerns. Did the party deceive Ghanaians merely to capture power? Is the government overwhelmed by the challenge of resolving the unemployment menace?

But the big question on my mind; is the public sector truly full? I wish the Senior Minister could give further and better particular on his definition of “full”, because l am at sea. 

How is the public sector full whilst Ghana’s doctor-patient ratio of 1:15,259 is way below the World Health Organisation’s recommended ratio of 1:5,000? The situation is the same with other categories of health workers. Interestingly, there are huge scores of health workers sitting idle and unemployed at home. This is just the case of the health sector. 

The same can be said of the educational sector. The human resource levels of our state security services need major expansion in both quantity and quality. One is met with the sight of a staff member working in the capacity of two, three, four, and more workers in our various state agencies. Clearly, there is an employment deficit in the public sector.

No amount of political tongue-twisting would convince me that the public sector is full. Perhaps, the argument government ought to make is that she is incapable of meeting economic requirements of employing more hands.

It is worth noting that Mr. Yaw Osafo Marfo pointed out that private sector growth is necessary to reduce unemployment. Sure, but it doesn’t warrantee government the right to deceive the citizenry instead of ensuring the employment deficit in the public sector is duly arrested. 

I believe the Senior Minister knows that the responsibility of plugging the human resource gap in essential sectors of our economy like health, education, security, etc can not be placed solely on the shoulders of the private sector.

Dear Senior Minister, please come again. The public sector is not full, you are only trying to run away from responsibility.