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 for the youth.
The Business and Employment Assistance 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 reiterated the commitment of government to providing more job opportunities for the youth, and cushioning those already in business.
“I am particularly excited about the relieve 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 intervention 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 GHS100m 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, while 2,000 youth have been engaged under the Youth in ICT module in collaboration with the Ghana Digital Centre.
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 such as plumbers, tilers, masons, beauticians, fabricators, carpenters, and electricians.
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 do more in the Agency’s quest to create more jobs for the youth.