Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, the Western Regional Minister, has reiterated the government’s commitment to creating a conducive environment where youth-led businesses will thrive.
He said the Government, through agencies and development partners, were working tirelessly to provide opportunities for the teeming youth to uncover their true entrepreneurial potential as means of creating jobs for sustainable development.
Mr Darko-Mensah was speaking at a regional sensitisation drive, organised by the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) and the Mastercard Foundation to educate the youth on a Business in a Box (BizBox) Project, designed to empower young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.
The workshop, held in Takoradi, was attended by young people in the Western Region to introduce them to the objectives and strategies of the BizBox Project and its registration and selection processes.
The project is a four-year collaborative initiative between the GEA and Mastercard Foundation that sought to equip the Ghanaian youth with knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship to setup competitive enterprises.
It would target about 250,000 young people between 15 to 35 years, with 70 per cent being women and 10 per cent Persons with Disability (PWDs) across the country.
The BizBox Project would be anchored on five pillars; Youth Skills Development, Access to market, Access to start-up, Youth social network, and Institutional strengthening policy and regulatory support.
Mr Darko-Mensah said recent statistics by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) underscored the severity of the youth unemployment challenge in Ghana, saying; “The ILO indicates that 60 per cent of our youth are underemployed, 12 per cent are unemployed, and 28 per cent are not in the labour force”.
“These alarming figures highlight the need for urgent and strategic interventions to equip our young people with the skills, technology, and opportunities to thrive in the workforce”.
The government recognised the pivotal role of the youth in national development, hence the initiative, he said.
“Initiatives such as the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme and GEA’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment Program (YEEP) exemplify the commitment to fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem by providing integrated support for young businesses to grow and succeed”.
Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, the Chief Executive Officer of GEA, said the BizBox Project was carefully designed to augment government’s efforts to solve the youth unemployment problem in the country.
Madam Rica Rwigamba, the Country Director, Mastercard Foundation, said the BizBox Project was an expansion of the Young Africa Works Strategy, which was implemented in 2020, and achieved significant successes by empowering about 94,000 young people to start-up their own businesses.
The Foundation committed to building partnerships with the GEA and other institutions to address the challenges young people faced in establishing their businesses, she noted.
