The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) says the $4 billion allocated for the 24-hour economy is woefully inadequate.
The Union urged the government to increase funding to make the policy competitive and capable of creating sufficient jobs.
The General Secretary of ICU, Morgan Ayawine said this while addressing the Professional and Managerial Staff Union of ICU in Accra.
He recounted the decision by government to roll out the 24-hour economy policy geared towards job creation.
Already, some business stakeholders have raised concerns over the policy.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the ICU has insisted that more investment is needed.
“We are ready to join the 24-hour economy for job creation. Look what is happening in our country is not a good commentary, you have parents who toiled, look for money, resources to educate their children but when they come out of schools they join the unemployed graduates. So what is it that we can do as a country and as a working class without any discrimination, so we believe that this is the time for all of us to come together as Ghanaians and deal with this canker,” Mr Ayawine said.
He noted that, “this time around, we all want to hear a policy that will develop this country, so we are out there, and we are going to engage all the social partners, all the stakeholders including government to ensure that this 24-hour economy works.”
“For the first time several policies that were designed to deal with unemployment failed. This time we there not fail,” he stressed.
According to him, “The 4 billion dollars is not enough for the 24-hour economy policy because the problems have accumulated, we will need more than that to help create adequate jobs.”
In a related development, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Agribusiness has canceled the One District One Factory policy.
ICU says it will engage the sector minister on this decision.
“We are yet to come to grips with the decision that informed the cancellation and once we have positioned ourselves as a union to continue to engage, very soon we will sit down with the policy makers, the government of the day to really appreciate what informed the decision to cancel the policy,” he stated.
By Daniel Opoku
