The programme has undergone various changes, including even change of name to Youth Employment Agency (YEA), yet youth unemployment persists and growing because every year a new group of young school leavers join those already in the system.
It is clear that even though the government happens to be the largest employer in the country, it has exhausted vacancies in the public sector, making it difficult for the youth to be absorbed there.
The option left is the private sector but even the formalisedaspect of this sector is gradually choking so the more promising opening is self-employment but that needs some push.
This is why it is soothing to learn that the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has adopted an initiative known as the YoubanCto give financial and technical support to young entrepreneurs in country.
The initiative, to be launched after the reading of the 2022 budget, would be implemented in collaboration with the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) and the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) under the COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation for Enterprise Support (CARES).
How to access
“Applications for financial support, starter packs and training/mentoring schemes will be made through a centralised online portal and at dedicated GEA & NEIP business advisory centres and university campuses,” Mr Ofori-Atta noted.
He said key stakeholders had been consulted to inform the design of the scheme.
“The consultations have also been scaled up to technical experts to ensure that the project is well suited to identify and support viable enterprises,” he said.
“In the end, our objective as a government is to ensure that we can, through our interventions, tackle the unsettling feeling of uncertainty that exists across our young people,” he added.
Mr Ofori-Atta stressed that the government was rooted in its commitment to create one million jobs by leveraging the existing financial architecture and the government’s enterprise ecosystem to create opportunities for the youth.
He, therefore, charged the youth to support the government’s efforts at building an entrepreneurial state that was capable of providing the necessary jobs required in the country.
The Finance Minister urged the youth to work at establishing their own businesses to employ others, instead of waiting to be employed by the government after school.
Citing how he left a very well paid job in New York, United States of America (USA), to start his own business back in Ghana, he told the youth to strive to do great things, as there was no limit to what they could do.
Mr Ofori-Atta and his friends set up Databank, which later invested in other companies, such as the Enterprise Insurance Group and other ancillary businesses, that now form a large conglomerate.
He assured the youth that the government was willing and ready to support them to achieve their dreams.
NOTE : As soon the website for YouBanC Ghana Initiative Support we will provide you the link for you to apply.