'Government payroll full' comment: Okraku Mantey defends 'Uncle' Ofori Atta

• Government payroll is full, Finance Minister said in October

• The comment attracted heavy backlash

• A Deputy Minister believes the comment was a hard truth that needed be told

Deputy Tourism Minister, Mark Okraku Mantey has made a strong case for entrepreneurship tasking that it be integrated into the education system.

Speaking in an interview

Read full articleon Accra-based Hitz FM, Okraku Mantey also defended a statement last month by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta where he asked students to go into entrepreneurship because the government payroll was full.

The Deputy Minister stressed that while he understood the anger that the comment had triggered, it was the hard truth that needed to be told but had been shied away from.

"My uncle Ken Ofori Atta, I like him and I like him for what he said. Let’s not be emotional about it. Sometimes our certificates deceive us, I have a Masters's Degree so I must do this. Let’s not rely on our certificates. Take prudent decisions.

He continued: "Entrepreneurship is an attitude, I think it is an attitude that we must teach the younger ones right from scratch. My father taught me, he will lead me to the shop and ask me to sell. You identify opportunities.

"You don’t have to go to school and say when I finish I am going to GRA, no, that is not how we must build a nation.

"So, my uncle, I call him the man in the white shirt, Ken Ofori Atta, what he said I know that it is something that is bothering a lot of people in the society but we are unable to talk about it because it is a no-go area.

"Because the youth will get angry, they will not understand because they were not taught some of these things… and I can assure the youth that all the great rich men in the world are sellers."

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What did Ofori Atta say

“The future for you in regard to jobs is the most important thing for you at this stage, and we have gone through a period when most people look for a job from government or state institutions, but that payroll is full.

"I can tell you that because we are spending about 60 percent of our revenue on renumerating some 650,000 people, and that is not sustainable,” he told graduating students at the University of Professional Studies-Accra.