While Pablo’s Report Details a Fleeing Generation
By Philip Antoh
Vice President Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang stood before officials at the Ministry of Youth and Empowerment last week and delivered a message of faith and promise. Ghana’s youth, she said, are the nation’s “most valuable resource.” A “little push,” she insisted, would unlock their innovation and drive national growth.
But the confidential report presented to her in the same meeting, obtained by The New Republic, contained a stark statistical counterpoint to her optimism: 72% of Ghanaian youth are actively contemplating leaving the country.
The Vice President’s visit, meant to foster collaboration, instead laid bare a profound disconnect between the government’s lofty rhetoric and the desperate calculus of a generation.
While Prof. Opoku-Agyemang spoke of inclusion and potential, Youth Minister George Opare Addo detailed a system buckling under financial strain and failing to meet basic aspirations, fueling an unprecedented desire to migrate.
“The youth of Ghana are very innovative. All they need is a little push, and you will be amazed at what they can do,” the Vice President told the room.
That “push,” however, is fiscally out of reach. Minister Opare Addo’s report revealed that a flagship National Apprenticeship Programme attracted 230,000 applicants but could enroll only 14,000 due to funding shortfalls a 94% rejection rate for a program with a 100,000-target.
He stated that bridging this gap alone would require over GH¢2.3 billion (approximately $180 million), money the ministry does not have. A parallel entrepreneurship initiative, Dream Era, also leaves most trained young people without the promised seed capital.
The minister’s disclosures painted a portrait of a generation in crisis, for whom migration is not an ambition but a contemplated escape route:
· A Fleeing Workforce: The 72% migration contemplation figure underscores a crisis of confidence in local opportunity. Unemployment is highest among young women and urban youth, with many others trapped in unstable informal work.
· A Substance Abuse Epidemic: Ministry-commissioned research found alarming drug and substance abuse in high schools and universities, with many students first exposed before age 18. Substances reported on campuses ranged from alcohol and cannabis edibles to shisha and hard drugs.
· A Protection Gap: The Vice President warned of the dangers young migrants face, especially women in domestic work abroad, urging safeguards. “We need to safeguard our children from the start,” she said. “Some things, once damaged, cannot be repaired.”
The ministry’s proposed solution to its coordination problems is a new AI-powered “Youth Explorer App” to track programs and match skills with jobs a digital tool that critics argue does little to address the multibillion-cedi resource deficit at the heart of the ministry’s failures.
In a direct plea, Minister Opare Addo asked the Vice President for help securing massive funding and implementing long-ignored labor laws. He also requested a World Bank assessment of youth programs from the past decade an implicit admission that years of initiatives have failed to stem the tide of disillusionment.
The meeting crystallized a recurring national dilemma: celebratory political statements about youth potential, delivered alongside grim bureaucratic assessments that explain why so many young people are looking for the exit.
The Vice President’s “little push” remains a metaphorical phrase. For the 216,000 young Ghanaians rejected from the apprenticeship program last year, the push they feel is the one out the door.