Majority of Ghanaian youth say the country is heading in the right direction – Survey

A survey report has revealed that 56 percent of Ghanaian youth believe that the country is on the right path.

More than half of Ghanaian youth interviewed in the survey said they would want to stay in the country, as the current leadership is doing all it could to make things work.

Out of all the countries surveyed, Ghanaians were the second-most optimistic on the continent about the future of their country after Rwanda.

The African Youth Survey 2022 by the South African Ichikowitz Family Foundation covered 15 countries in Africa, including Ghana.

The survey is dedicated to the hopes and aspirations of Africa’s youth.

The survey of more than 4,500 young people in Africa aged 18-24 also found that 52 percent are likely to migrate due to economic hardship, the pandemic, climate crisis, political instability, and violence.

In almost all countries, at least two-thirds of young people surveyed believed their nations were going in the wrong direction, apart from Rwanda and Ghana, where 60% and 56% were optimistic about their country’s direction.

Views on the continent’s direction as a whole were more divided, though only in Ghana did a majority believe Africa was moving in the right direction.

According to the report, the youth believed they had a younger government that was providing better support and easier access to financing that supported young businesses.

On the other hand, 41 percent of the population interviewed said the country was heading in the wrong trajectory.

Only 32% of the 4,500 young people interviewed were optimistic about Africa’s prospects, according to the survey – a drop of 11% since the last survey of its kind published in early 2020.

Nigerian youth were the most pessimistic about the future of their country, with 95 percent believing their county is headed in the wrong direction.

Despite the fears for the future, the researchers found positivity among the interviewees about their own futures, with about 75% of them believing that their personal situation would improve.

The African countries where the survey was conducted are Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique, Gabon, Democratic Republic of 1Congo, South Africa, Congo Republic, Angola, Ethiopia, Sudan, Malawi, Kenya, Zambia, and Nigeria.