Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Minister of Employment and Labour Relations
ACCRA, Sept 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The jobs of 11.2 million people in the country have been affected due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, Ghana’s Minister for Employment and Labour Relations said.
This comes on the back of the pandemic’s associated restrictions, closure of air, sea and land borders and a halt in demand and supply chains globally.
According to Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, a survey conducted by his ministry showed that 40 percent of the Ghanaian labour force have had to take pay cuts as result of pandemic’s impact.
Addressing journalists in Accra, the minister explained, “Results of the survey indicated that 17,685 out of the 44,000, that is 40 percent of workers suffered pay cuts. Pay cuts were highest among medium scale enterprises with 46 percent of workers affected and lowest among small scale enterprises with 38 percent being affected.”
Baffour-Awuah noted that 98.5% of workers in the private sector were the most affected while that of the public sector were the least affected.
The Minister however indicated government’s resolve to set up the National Unemployment Scheme which will be used to support affected workers in the formal sector.
Meanwhile, Ghana’s economy contracted for the first time in almost four decades in the second quarter, by an annual 3.2%, as coronavirus restrictions stalled activity, the statistics office said.
The West African nation, a major producer of gold, oil and cocoa, imposed a three-week lockdown in March to halt the spread of the pandemic, forcing many businesses to close, government statistician Samuel Kobina Annim told a news conference.
“Even after the restrictions have been lifted, many businesses across sectors have continued to close down,” Kobina Annim said.
“For the first time in 37 years, Ghana’s economy has seen a contraction of 3.2%, compared with a growth rate of 5.7% in the same quarter in 2019.”
The fall in output was mostly felt in manufacturing and in the services sector, where hotels and restaurants were shuttered to stop the virus spreading.
Ghana’s finance minister has said in July that the economy was expected to grow at its slowest rate in 40 years, at around 0.9% this year compared with a previous forecast of 6.8%.
Ghana has recorded 45,655 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 294 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in March. — NNN-AGENCIES
