Fiifi Boafo: Government Skills Programmes must go beyond training to create jobs

By Hubeyidatu Mumuni 

Former Deputy Finance Minister Fiifi Boafo has called for stronger monitoring and evaluation of government skills development programmes, arguing that simply training unemployed people without tracking the outcome does not guarantee value for money.

Speaking on JoyNews’ AM Show, Mr. Boafo said government agencies must go beyond providing skills and ensure that beneficiaries receive the necessary tools and resources to translate their training into sustainable employment.

He explained that effective planning should not end with the implementation of a programme, but must include systems to assess whether the intended objectives have been achieved.

“When you are doing some of these things, and it’s not just saying that I want to do this, or I will even give people these skills, and it ends there. Just by giving people the skills and it ends there, it’s not enough,” he said.

According to him, government must establish mechanisms to follow up on beneficiaries after training to determine whether the programmes are actually improving their livelihoods.

“Beyond giving them the skills, what are the tools they need to work with? And you should even have a system in place to go and evaluate,” Mr. Boafo stated.

He stressed that such evaluations would enable government to determine whether the resources invested in the programmes were producing the desired results.

“If a government agency says that, oh well, I’ve given people skills and then it ends there, what is the value you have created?” he questioned.

Mr. Boafo said government should be able to return to beneficiaries after a reasonable period to assess how they have used the skills, equipment and other resources provided to them.

“To be able to convince yourself that the programmes you are rolling out have indeed impacted on the lives of the people, you should have a means of going back, assessing, getting the feedback,” he said.

He cited skills training in areas such as beekeeping and piggery as examples, saying beneficiaries should be assessed after a period to determine whether the interventions have translated into actual economic opportunities.

“After two years, you go back and assess the skill set you gave the people, the equipment you gave them, the resources you gave them, what have they done with it? Has it made an impact? Has it taken the people from the unemployment fold to employment?” he asked.

Mr. Boafo warned that without proper monitoring, government could end up spending large sums of money on programmes without being able to demonstrate their impact.

“But if you’re just saying that, okay, oh, we have seen you, you say you are unemployed, so, we have given 130,000 people and it ends there, it’s a scam!” he stated.