Professor Charles Ackah, a Principal Investigator at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), has identified Ghana’s emerging “care economy” as a critical, untapped frontier for mass employment.
Prof. Ackah said formalising the adult caregiving sector could provide thousands of sustainable jobs for university and high school graduates currently facing long-term unemployment.
Speaking at a research dissemination event in Accra hosted by the Institute, Prof. Ackah noted that the rapidly aging population — those aged 60 to 90 and above — represented a vast, unserviced market.
Ghana Statistical Service data points to an unemployment rate of 13.6 per cent by the end of 2024 and 12.8 per cent by the end of 2025.
According to ISSER, over the last five years, utilising data from the 2020 census, there is a significant gap in the national social protection framework. While child care and maternity leave are institutionalised, elder care remains an informal burden.
In rural areas, 85-year-olds are increasingly living alone due to youth migration. Prof. Ackah emphasised that every household with an elderly person is a potential site for formal economic engagement.
“By shifting from the current system of informal, unorganised family care to a professionalised industry, Ghana could simultaneously improve the quality of life for seniors and solve a significant portion of the youth unemployment crisis,” he said.
The Professor said the potential for job growth in this sector was immense, as longer life expectancy naturally increased the demand for specialized care. He proposed that young people currently waiting for years for civil service postings could be trained as specialised caregivers, creating a new professional class focused specifically on geriatrics.
He noted that this shift would also provide a double-ended economic benefit by releasing highly qualified professionals, particularly women, back into the labour force, who would otherwise be forced to resign or cut productive hours to provide unpaid care at home.
To unlock these job prospects, Prof. Ackah stated that Ghana must move away from the current “out-of-pocket” model and establish a consistent national policy, a specialised training curriculum, and a sustainable financing system.
He noted that comparing Ghana to more advanced systems in Europe and South Africa illustrated how a structured care economy became a pillar of national development rather than a domestic burden.
Prof. Ackah said that with the right state intervention and involvement from local assemblies to map elderly needs, the care sector could transition from a private family challenge into a formal economic engine that drives both social welfare and mass employment.
