The Executive Chairman of the McDan Group, Dr Daniel Mckorley has blamed leadership failure by successive governments as the reason for the impoverished state of Ghana’s youth.

Ghana’s youthful population is often cited as one of the country’s most beneficial resource, presenting the opportunity for growth and development.

However, factors like the high rate of youth unemployment and lack of education have turned that resource into a burden with many analysts warning of major threats to the country’s security.

In 2017, the estimated youth unemployment rate in Ghana was at 4.9 per cent.

Speaking on the Time with the CEO segment on the Morning Starr Monday Dr Mckorley said the fate of young people in the country is due to the failure of successive governments in formulating and implementing youth-friendly policies and programme.

“We’ve got cocoa, we’ve got manganese, we’ve got bauxite….none of these natural resources had made a single Ghanaian a billionaire. Right now, we have oil, who’s playing in that field? Can you be proud of a single person being a billionaire in the sector that we dominate? It’s not possible,” he told Morning Starr host Francis Abban.

“I believe strongly that leadership has failed the youth, successive government,” he added.

Dr McKorley was, however, quick to note that the current government led by President Akufo-Addo is doing something great for the youth.

“I believe that with proper diligence and concentration if the youth put up the right attitude, I hope this government will be a good government for the youth. If you look at some of the programmes of the government it is geared towards the youth. So, they should be able to take advantage of some of the policies,” he said.