When young people confront their Member of Parliament about unemployment, telling them that people in the President’s hometown are also unemployed is not leadership. It is an excuse.
While an MP is not an employment agency, political leadership should identify opportunities, mobilise investment, influence government priorities and create an environment where businesses and jobs can emerge.
Ningo Prampram sits on enormous economic potential, yet unemployment is being explained away. The district’s 2026 budget singles out its beaches as the main tourism attraction, highlighting the New Ningo coastline and Old Ningo estuary, and describing Prampram as having some of Ghana’s cleanest white sand beaches. It also notes the district’s proximity to Tema and Accra.
So where is the serious plan to turn Ningo Prampram into Greater Accra’s coastal tourism and leisure economy? Clean and protect the beaches. Improve access roads, lighting, sanitation, security and spatial planning. Encourage restaurants, beach clubs, boutique hotels, seafood markets, water sports, cultural attractions, festivals and safe nightlife. Protect investment from sand winning and uncontrolled development.
Train local youth as chefs, lifeguards, tour guides, artisans, boat operators, photographers, entertainers and hospitality professionals. Tourism creates work far beyond hotels. It feeds transport, agriculture, fishing, retail, entertainment, construction and property.
Thankfully, Ningo Prampram already hosts Central University’s main Miotso Campus, a 248‑acre academic community with schools covering business, architecture, engineering, medicine, pharmacy, law and other disciplines.
Why isn’t the Assembly and political leadership deliberately partnering with Central University to research the district’s tourism potential, coastal protection, spatial development, architecture, entrepreneurship and investment opportunities? A university also creates its own economy: student accommodation, restaurants, transport, retail, healthcare, entertainment, professional services and property development. That should be deliberately integrated into a wider Ningo Prampram economic strategy.
The question for leadership is therefore simple: What does Ningo Prampram possess that people will pay to experience, and how do we convert it into jobs? The coastline is there. The university is there. Accra and Tema are next door. The young people are there.
Ningo Prampram does not need excuses for unemployment. It needs leadership capable of monetising its advantages.
