- Ghanaian youth (aged 18-35) have more education than their elders. Three-fourths (76%) have secondary or post-secondary qualifications, compared to 49%-64% among older cohorts.
- But youth are also more likely to be unemployed: About one-third (34%) say they are looking for work, compared to 20%-21% of the middle-aged.
- Aside from the country’s general economic situation and scarcity of jobs, young people cite a lack of adequate training, a mismatch between educational qualifications and job requirements, youth’s unwillingness to work certain jobs as well as a lack of experience required by employers as their most important barriers to employment.
- Given their choice of jobs, about six in 10 Ghanaian youth (61%) would like to start their own businesses. Next in popularity is working for the government or public sector (24%).
- If the government could increase its spending on programmes to help youth, job creation would be young people’s top priority for greater investment, followed by education, jobs training, and access to business loans.
- Unemployment is the most important problem that young Ghanaians say their government must address, followed by infrastructure/roads, health, education, and management of the economy.
- On these priority issues, youth offer mixed reviews of their government’s performance, ranging from strikingly low levels of approval on job creation (15%) and economic management (15%) to 50% approval on addressing educational needs.
- Most young people support the government’s job-creation and education initiatives known as one district, one factory (71%), planting or rearing for food and jobs (81%), and free senior high school (84%).
- Overwhelming majorities of young people see their country as moving in “the wrong direction” (84%) and describe both the country’s economic condition (77%) and their personal living conditions (63%) as “fairly bad” or “very bad.”
- Fewer than half (48%) of youth think things will get better during the coming year.
- Almost three-fourths (72%) of young Ghanaians say they have considered emigrating, most to find jobs or escape economic hardship. The share of youth who say they have thought “a lot” about leaving their country has more than doubled compared to 2017, from 26% to 55%.
Ghana’s population is young: Citizens aged 15-35 make up 38% of the population and 60% of the labour force (Ghana Statistical Service, 2021). Despite their demographic strength, young Ghanaians face significant barriers to social and political participation, including high unemployment rates, limited access to socio-economic opportunities, and underrepresentation in political processes. These challenges have contributed to growing disillusionment among youth with the political system (Graphic Online, 2025; Chibwana, McApreko, Oteng, & Kisiwaa, 2023).
Successive governments have introduced a series of policy interventions aimed at improving youth development and inclusion. In 2017, the government launched three initiatives aimed at improving access to education, promoting food security, and creating jobs for Ghanaian youth: the free senior high school (SHS) programme, planting or rearing for food and jobs, and one district, one factory (Allotey, 2017; Graphic Online, 2017; International Trade Administration, 2022).
In 2022, the New Patriotic Party-led government affirmed its commitment to youth participation through an updated National Youth Policy (Ministry of Youth and Sports, 2022). More recently, the ruling National Democratic Congress (2024) launched a “youth manifesto” proposing structural reforms such as decoupling the Ministry of Youth Development and Empowerment from the Ministry of Youth and Sports to ensure a focus on development rather than sports, establishing the Adwumawura Programme to support youth entrepreneurship, and fully implementing the National Youth Authority Act (2016) through the creation of district and regional youth committees.
However, concerns persist regarding the fragmentation of national youth interventions and a lack of policy alignment across ministries and levels of government. Institutions such as the Youth Employment Agency and metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies are often criticised for not meaningfully involving young people in the design and assessment of youth policies (Kavaarpuo, Porekuu, & Yeboah, 2023). Youth are underrepresented in decision making forums, even within programmes intended to benefit them (Godjo, 2019). Notably, the newly appointed minister for youth development and empowerment is not part of the president’s 19-member cabinet (Nartey, 2025), highlighting the limited political weight given to youth leadership. These realities risk limiting the effectiveness and relevance of youth focused initiatives in addressing the real needs and aspirations of young Ghanaians.
The Afrobarometer Round 10 survey (2024) offers some insights into the situation of Ghana’s youth. Findings show that young people are more likely than their elders to be unemployed, even though they are more educated. Unemployment ranks at the top of young Ghanaians’ priorities for government action, followed by infrastructure/roads, health, education, and management of the economy.
Their assessments of the government’s performance on these priority issues are mixed at best, and most see the country as headed in “the wrong direction.” Evaluations of economic and personal living conditions are largely negative. Only a minority of young people are optimistic that things will get better in the near future, and a growing share of youth say they have contemplated emigrating in search of better opportunities.
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