The Minister for Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta has assured the Ghanaian youth of the Government’s continuous support through the YouStart initiative.
Delivering the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana and Supplementary Estimate for the 2022 Financial Year, the Finance Minister indicated that the YouStart initiative under the Ghana CARES programme is being introduced to ease constraints for existing and aspiring young entrepreneurs.
He charged beneficiaries of the Nation Builders Corps (NABCo) to take advantage of the YouStart programme to build their businesses.
“Government has invested Gh¢2.2bn in YouStart Initiative. For those with business ideas, we will provide you with the requisite support and guidance through the YouStart to grow and expand your businesses,” Mr Ofori-Atta said.
He emphasised that the initiative would ensure that skills training becomes much better aligned with the needs of sectors as drivers of future productivity growth and socio-economic transformation.
YouStart initiative would support youth-led enterprises with, soft loans of up to GH¢50,000 to help start-ups (in particular by young graduates and school leavers) and small businesses to expand, Starter packs (Soft loans tied to equipment acquisition) of up to GH¢50,000 for individuals and GH¢100,000 for associations and groups and a standardised loan package of between GH¢100,000 to GH¢400,000 at concessional rates for SMEs from financial institutions.
According to him, based on available data from the Ghana Statistical Service, 11.5 million people were considered economically active and of this number, 1.5 million people were unemployed.
The Unemployment rate among the population 15 years and older was estimated as 13.4% and was higher for females (15.5%) than males (11.6%). Among the population 15-35 years, the unemployment rate was 19.7% and is even much higher for young adults 15-24 years (32.8%).
