Pious Hadzide during the press conference
AS PART of its efforts to address the phenomenon of youth unemployment in the country, government has announced arrangements to roll out about 1 million jobs for the youth of the country under its new flagship programme, the ‘YouStart Initiative’.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on November 17, while reading the 2022 Budget Statement and Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana, highlighted government’s plans to roll out the initiative which is aimed at supporting the training, funding and promotion of the businesses of young people in various parts of the country.
At a press conference on Thursday, Pious Enam Hadzide, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Youth Authority (NYA) explained that the YouStart Initiative, which is under government’s COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises Support (CARES) programme, otherwise known as “Obaatanpa”, would create employment opportunities for 1 million young people in the next three years.
“Under the YouStart Initiative, youth-led businesses would have access to district level loans of up to GH¢10,000 after beneficiaries had completed between 2-3 months of training,” he disclosed.
“They would also get soft loans of up to GH¢50,000 to help small businesses and start-ups, particularly those owned by young graduates and school leavers 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; as well as a standardised loan package of between GH¢100,000 to GH¢400,000 at concessional rates for SMEs from financial institutions.”
The initiative, he added, would be funded with GH¢ 1 billion each year from government which will additionally raise, in collaboration with development partners and financial institutions, a further GH¢ 2 billion.
The initiative, which would be implemented by the National Entrepreneurship Innovation Programme (NEIP) and the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), will further benefit from up to GH¢ 5 billion commitment package that local banks have committed to expanding their Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) portfolio within the next three years. That amounts to a total of GH¢10 billion over the three years.
“The National Youth Authority (NYA) encourages the youth, especially the remaining 67,000 NaBCo beneficiaries, to take full advantage of the initiative once it becomes operationalised,” he counselled.
Mr. Hadzide went on to assure the youth of Ghana of government’s commitment to combat unemployment, especially among the youth saying, “the creation of jobs for the youth has been a central tenet of this government since the inauguration of H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017.”
“After years of enduring a suspension of public sector employment, this Government has caused 295,032 people to be employed onto the public sector payroll since 2017 with financial clearance having been granted for an additional 72,825 this year alone.
The Government has additionally engaged 100,000 graduates of tertiary institutions under NaBCo.”
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio