Though the minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, announced in the 2023 budget the intention of the government to freeze employment in the public sector, the same budget also intends to create thousands of jobs through the YouStart programme, which already has a budget of GHS10 billion.
The Chronicle understands that a number of young Ghanaian have already benefited from the government’s piloted YouStart Programme, with a sponsorship amount of GH₵1.98million.
The pilot phase was implemented in February 2022, involving 85 young entrepreneurs.
YouStart is to deliberately grow start-ups and contribute to the government’s agenda of creating one million jobs, but depend largely on the support of banks.
This is to support youth-led Small and Medium Enterprises in the poultry, agro-processing, ICT, textiles and food processing sectors.
It aims at establishing a wealthy, inclusive, sustainable, empowered and resilient (WISER) society, with young people at the core, who are more confident about their place in the world.
YouStart seeks to ease constraints for young entrepreneurs under the Ghana COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalisation of Enterprises Support (CARES) programme, which is part of efforts to address the high youth unemployment rate in the country.
Through YouStart, government intends to commit about GH₵10 billion over the next three years, towards the creation of at least a million jobs in the economy.
The programme forms part of the GH₵100 billion Ghana Cares “ObaatanPa” programme which was launched by Government in November 2020, to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, return the country to a sustained path of robust growth and to create a stronger, more resilient and transformed economy.
The 2021 Population and Housing Census put the youth unemployment rate at an all-time high of 13.4%.This translates into 1.55 million out of the 11.54 million economically active population.
Ghana Statistical Service data shows that 32.8% of Ghanaians aged 15 to 24 years are unemployed.Even among individuals who appear to be employed, 50% are categorised as underemployed.
The YouStart programme is a vehicle through which Government intends to provide funding and technical support to the youth (18-40 years) and youth-led businesses to assist them start, build and grow their own businesses.
The programme is benchmarked against similar successful models in the world, including the Small Business Administration (SBA) in the US and the British Business Bank, UK.
The government, through the YouStart programme, intends to build an entrepreneurial nation by providing some of the key enablers that make entrepreneurship a success.
These include access to finance and markets, mentorship, strategic partnership and digital linkages, technical assistance and business advisory support service.
Youth from the ages of 18 – 40 years with minimum education of BECE, willingness to start a business as well as school dropouts already in business are eligible to apply.
Already, YouStart District Entrepreneurship Programme has been launched and YouStart Ghana Jobs and Skills application portal opened to receive applications from potential beneficiaries of a GH₵1 billion entrepreneurship fund.
YouStart programme is eligible for starter packs including soft loans ranging from GH₵10,000 to GH₵50,000.
The programme also has standard loan packages of between GH₵100,000 and GH₵500,000 at concessional rates.
With a combined commitment of GH¢10 billion, government has signed a contract for the YouStart Commercial Programme with the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB) and 13 leading banks.
According to the Finance Minister, government will contribute a portion of the programme money to the commercial programme, and the participating financial institution will be expected to match government’s funds based on an established ratio and a planned standardised product.
There will not be any collateral for businesses to access loan under the programme, and the recovery is also dependent on the beneficiaries.
The conditions for accessing the scheme includes existing businesses whose prime movers were the youth between ages 18 and 40, prove that their employees are contributing to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and that 50% of their employees are between 18 and 40.They will also have to show that their businesses, when supported, would be profitable and create youth employment.
