Drifting from Nkrumah's state-led development model cause of Ghana's high unemployment —Julius Malema

South African politician and founder of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Julius Malema has blamed Ghana's high unemployment rate on the country drifting away from founding president Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's model of state-led development.

Addressing journalists ahead of an event in Accra on Tuesday, January 23, organized by pressure group Arise Ghana, Malema said privatizing strategic sectors of the economy has exacerbated joblessness in Ghana.

"If you drift away from Nkrumah's principles of state-led development and you prioritize privatization of strategic sectors of the economy, you'll never address the issue of unemployment because the interest of business is to maximize profit," Malema said.

He argued that privatizing key industries often leads to layoffs as private owners seek to cut costs and boost profits.

“Every time you privatize something strategic, the first victims of privatization is the workers. They remove the workers in order to maximize on profit," Malema observed.

The Economic Freedom Fighters leader said embracing Nkrumah's model of the state playing a leading role in the economy would do more to absorb the growing numbers of unemployed Ghanaians.

"If we have a state-led corrupt-free development then you’re guaranteed to absorb as many people as possible because that role of the state is not to make profit, it’s to generate sufficient resources to finance its social responsibility programmes," Malema stated.