The Tema Traditional Council (TTC) has called on industries operating within its paramountcy to provide the teeming unemployed youth of the area with job opportunities.

Nii Armah Somponu II, Tema Shipi, and Stool Secretary making the appeal during the Tema Annual Homowo durbar, said even though there were educated Tema natives, with the requisite qualifications they were not getting jobs in Tema.

"Tema known as an industrial city with companies dotted around, it is ironic that our youth with the qualification and competencies will still be hunting for jobs without success," he noted.

Nii Somponu noted that "most of the youth after attaining education, do not get jobs to do even though most of the factories are built on our lands, heads of companies including public ones prefer going to bring workers from outside our traditional jurisdiction instead of engaging our youth".

He said the people of Tema lost all its arable lands to industries making it difficult for the people to ply their original occupation of farming while their coastline has also been used for the construction of the Tema Harbor.

He said due to these developments, the youth who could have ventured into farming or fishing in the absence of jobs had become unemployed.

"Sadly the companies and factories operating on their farmlands were also not employing them, a situation he described as unacceptable".

He bemoaned that most of the companies when recruiting, did not give a quota to the traditional leaders to present some of their youth even though government took over its land and gave it to the industries to operate.

"We the people of Tema, we are farmers and fishermen, all our farmlands have been used for the construction of big factories, and when they are recruiting people for employment, they do not even ask us to bring some of our youth for employment," he lamented.

Nii Somponu said the building of the factories took away most of the farming lands and with the increase in population, the rate of unemployment had also increased in Tema, therefore the need to provide concessions for the Tema people.