About 10,000 businesses owned by young Ghanaian entrepreneurs, as well as 20,000 youth, are to benefit from the government’s Business and Employment Assistance Programme, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has revealed.
The Business and Employment Assistance Programme, driven by the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), is part of government’s intervention to cushion young Ghanaian entrepreneurs and also provide more job opportunities to the youth, in the midst of global economic crisis, which has not spared Ghanaian businesses.
The Business and Employment Support Programme will help MSMEs grow by supporting skilled workers financially and hiring more youth to sustain and expand small and medium-scale businesses by paying salaries of those who will be employed by successful business applicants.
Speaking at the launch of the programme in Sunyani, on Monday, December 11, 2023, Dr. Bawumia stressed the importance of the youth to the country, and also reiterated the commitment of Government to providing more opportunities to the youth, by cushioning those already in business and creating more jobs.
“I am particularly excited about the relief this initiative will provide to the Ghanaian youth,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“The youth of this country are our greatest resource, and it is our collective duty to ensure that they are well-positioned to make significant contributions to the economic development of our dear nation,” he added.
The Business and Employment Assistance Programme is the latest of many job creation and business support interventions the government has implemented through the YEA, to support the youth.
Dr. Bawumia listed several youth interventions by the government including the YouStart programme, which he said, has been successfully piloted with GH 100m Cedis distributed this year.
Under other interventions targeted at the youth, 21,000 youth have been engaged under the YEA’s Community Police Assistants and Community Health Workers module, 2,000 youth engaged under the Youth in ICT module in collaboration with the Ghana Digital Centres Ltd.
Also through YEA’s partnership with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, 15,000 Ghanaian youth have been trained in business skills, corporate compliances, and financial sustainability practices, while the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is also poised to engage 20,000 youth under Phase 2 of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme.
Additionally, the YEA, in collaboration with the Ghana TVET Service and the Ghana Energy Commission, will train 20,000 Artisans as plumbers, tilers, masons, beauticians, fabricators, glazing workers, carpenters, and electricians and the beneficiaries under this module will be duly certified after training and provided with the requisite tools and equipment to set up enterprises of their own.
The Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, Kofi Agyapong, said, the YEA will continue to strengthen existing modules and create more in the agency’s quest to create more jobs for the youth.
