- NDPC Chair Calls for Jobs-First Policy Shift as Ghana Builds Labour Economics Capacity
Ghana is preparing the ground for a significant rethink of its policy framework, with the Chairman of the National Development Planning Commission, Dr Nii Moi Thompson, calling for employment creation to become a central objective of economic management.
Speaking on the need to strengthen Ghana’s development planning architecture, Dr Thompson said the country faces a critical shortage of analytical capacity in labour economics, a weakness that limits the ability of policymakers to design interventions that directly address unemployment and underemployment.
“To function as a modern economy, we must deepen our understanding of labour dynamics,” he said, warning that Ghana’s current insight into employment trends remains too narrow for robust policymaking.
His comments come at a time when Ghana’s macroeconomic indicators are improving, but questions remain over whether stabilisation is translating fast enough into jobs, stronger incomes and wider real-sector expansion.
In response to the analytical gap, the National Development Planning Commission has launched a targeted capacity-building programme to train a cohort of about 14 to 15 professionals from key public institutions.
The officials have been drawn from the Bank of Ghana, the Ministry of Finance, selected metropolitan assemblies and the labour ministry. The programme is being implemented in collaboration with the International Labour Organization, with technical training conducted in Italy.
The objective is to embed specialised labour economics expertise within Ghana’s policy system, giving public institutions the tools to generate data-driven, employment-focused strategies.
Dr Thompson said the reform effort has two dimensions. The first is technical: building the analytical foundation required to understand labour market behaviour, employment trends, productivity patterns and the structural barriers that prevent economic growth from producing enough jobs.
The second is policy oriented: shifting the focus of decision-makers toward employment outcomes as a core measure of national development.
“At the policy level, the focus must be clear: employment, employment, employment,” he said.
The intervention signals a potentially important shift in Ghana’s economic policy debate. For years, macroeconomic management has been dominated by inflation control, exchange rate stability, fiscal consolidation and debt sustainability. While these remain necessary for economic confidence, Dr Thompson’s remarks suggest that they may no longer be sufficient measures of policy success.
The emerging question is whether Ghana can move from stabilisation to employment-led transformation.
A jobs-first approach would require closer coordination between fiscal policy, monetary policy, industrial policy, skills development and local government planning. It would also require better labour market data to show where jobs are being created, where they are being lost, which sectors offer the strongest employment multipliers, and how policy choices affect workers, firms and productivity.
Analysts say placing jobs more explicitly at the centre of policy design would represent a notable recalibration of priorities. It could force policymakers to examine how interest rates, credit flows, public investment, taxation, industrial incentives and exchange rate management affect employment creation across sectors.
For the Bank of Ghana, such a debate would be particularly sensitive. Central banks traditionally focus on price stability and financial stability. But in economies with persistent unemployment, weak industrialisation and large informal sectors, the employment implications of monetary policy are becoming harder to ignore.
Dr Thompson’s call does not suggest abandoning inflation control. Rather, it points to the need for a wider policy lens, one that asks not only whether inflation is falling but also whether the broader policy mix is enabling businesses to invest, expand and absorb labour.
The timing is significant. Ghana is emerging from a period of severe economic stress, marked by high inflation, debt restructuring, exchange rate volatility and tight financing conditions. As stability returns, public expectations are shifting from crisis repair to livelihoods.
For households, the recovery will be judged less by macroeconomic charts and more by access to work, wages, business opportunities and the cost of living. For government, the political and developmental test will be whether improved macroeconomic conditions can produce jobs at scale.
The NDPC’s capacity-building initiative is therefore more than a technical training exercise. It is an attempt to correct a deeper institutional weakness in Ghana’s policymaking system: the absence of a strong labour economics base capable of linking national planning to employment outcomes.
Without that capacity, even ambitious policy shifts risk being built on weak evidence. For now, Dr Thompson’s message is direct. Ghana’s next phase of economic management must move beyond stabilisation. It must be judged by whether it creates work, raises productivity and gives citizens a real stake in the recovery.
