The Centre for Policy Scrutiny (CPS) has questioned the government’s claim that its flagship employment programmes are creating jobs, saying there is not enough reliable evidence to verify the results.
The policy think tank says the government has yet to provide data confirming that the 490,000 jobs promised under the Big Push initiative have been created, two years after the commitment was made.
Labour economist at the CPS, Dr. Prince Adjei, said the government had introduced several programmes aimed at creating employment, but reliable figures on the actual number of jobs generated remain unavailable.
He made the remarks on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, during the CPS’s 2026 Mid-Year Budget Review.
Dr. Adjei said the government must use clear measures to determine whether its employment programmes are delivering the promised results.
These should distinguish between permanent, temporary and indirect jobs, as well as jobs that remain available over time.
He cautioned that the start or progress of a project does not automatically mean that it has created jobs.
“The manifesto promise was that the Big Push is projecting about 490,000 jobs. But what we see by mid-year 2026 is that these 490,000 jobs; we do not have verifiable data to confirm that these jobs have actually been created.”
The economist said the CPS had assessed 87 projects under the Big Push programme. Of those, 28 had reached more than 25% completion, while the remaining 59 had recorded progress below 25%.
He said the government should now focus on demonstrating actual employment outcomes rather than simply reporting funds allocated or projects undertaken.
“We need to move from allocation into measurable employment outcomes. There must be a programme register and a database or dashboard that can report in real time how many jobs have been created.”
The CPS also questioned the employment figures attached to some major projects, including the proposed Accra-Kumasi Expressway, which the government had projected would generate about 80,000 jobs.
Dr Adjei said the expressway project was still in its preparatory phase, with work currently focused on clearing the right of way. He therefore said there was not enough information to establish its current impact on employment.
He also pointed to other government initiatives, including agricultural enclave roads, garment factories, agro-processing facilities and apprenticeship programmes.
According to him, these programmes have yet to produce sufficient evidence showing how many jobs they have actually created.
The CPS is therefore calling for a transparent system that can track employment figures across government projects and provide regular updates on the number and type of jobs generated.
