E/R: Government Offers Income Support and Employment Services to Tourism and Hospitality Sector Heavily Hit by Covid-19

The government of Ghana through the Ministry of Finance has commenced the Training and Retraining of workers in the Tourism and Hospitality Sector who were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in the Eastern region.

The National Training and Retraining Program was officially launched by the Minister of Finance in June 2022 last year with the main objective of skills upgrading, work ethics, productivity improvement and attitudinal change.

Government support to workers who were negatively impacted by Covid-19 was occasioned by the Covid-19 BusinessTracker Survey conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service indicating that about 65.4% of institutions in the Education Sector were closed down during the lockdown as well as a survey by the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) which also estimated that by the end of April 2020 about 23% of workers in the Hospitality Industry had lost their job with the quarter of them emanating from the Restaurant and Hotel sub sector.

During the Inauguration of the training program at Koforidua Technical University (KTU), an Economist and a representative from the Ministry of Finance Akwasi Manu highlighted that as part of government’s effort to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in these sector government together with it social partners decided to pilot the training and the retraining program in the affected sectors begining from the Hospitality sector.

According to him the Hospitality and the Tourism Sector is one of the major drivers of economic growth in Ghana and contribute immensely to the country’s economy therefore through this program government is enhancing the skills of the beneficiaries and ensuring that the Hospitality and the Tourism Sector remains competitive and resilient in the years to come.

The Vice Chancellor of Koforidua Technical University KTU Prof. David Kofi Essumang said Koforidua Technical University being one of the selected Service Providers to the government’s initiative to train over 500 workers encourages the beneficiaries to actively participate in the training program since the government has adequately resourced the university with an amount of about Ghc 1.6 million to offer skills and practical oriented training programs resulting to the creation of employment for the youths in the Eastern region.

On the other hand, Prof. John Owusu a Lecturer at Koforidua Technical University KTU responsible for the supervision of the training program gave a brief account on the courses to study through out the training section and urged the beneficiaries to properly utilize the opportunity given to them.