Professor Alex Dodoo, the Director-General of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA), has emphasized the need for strict enforcement of Ghana’s building code and regulations to enhance resilience against earthquakes.
He also stressed the importance of mandated state agencies conducting structural integrity tests on buildings, in line with the building code, following the devastating earthquake in Turkey as a warning signal for Ghana to “do things right” to avert future disasters.
Speaking at a workshop organized by the Design Technology Institute (DTI) in Accra, which brought together government agencies, Prof. Dodoo highlighted that enforcing the building code could create up to 500,000 jobs, tackling the unemployment challenge in the country.
He also urged training institutions to consider the opportunities in the built sector and start training people in the skills required to take up jobs in that space.
The Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Bright Wireko Brobbey, emphasized the need for stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors to build a robust Labour Market Information System (LMIS) for the country.
This collaboration would be crucial in unlocking the potential of the informal sector, which constituted about 80% of employment in Ghana.
Constance Swaniker, the Founder and CEO of DTI, called for prioritizing technical and vocational education and training (TVET) to create the human resource with the critical skills required for national development.
African governments needed to adopt human resource development policies that leveraged TVET and skills training, she said.
Dr Kodjo Mensah-Abrampa, the Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), stressed the importance of prioritizing standardization, precision, and strict adherence to regulations in an era of globalization.
He called for training regimes to be linked to standards and regulatory systems to move away from the business-as-usual way of doing things because the future of work lies in standards, precision, and quality of work.
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