Business Development Minister justifies using GHc100m for capacity building

The Minister for Business Development, Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, has justified the use of GHc100 million for capacity building for entrepreneurs in the country.

GHc90 million of the money is part of a loan to the state.

He says it is necessary to apply such funds in the right training of the country’s teeming youth to create sustainable jobs in the face of rising youth unemployment.

“Only 15 percent of businesses go beyond the founders in this country. In Ghana, you cannot count 20 indigenous businesses that have survived their owners because we don’t train well. We don’t do succession. We don’t prepare young people to take over from the founders,” he said.

The investment in capacity building is also viewed by the government as a measure to address youth unemployment.

“The issue of youth and employment is a big challenge to everyone around the world and the President has noted that one solid way of solving youth unemployment is through entrepreneurship and in line with this we have issued a number of programmes.”

So far, 70 percent of the money has been loaned out under the programme.

“Our recovery rate is 70 percent. We intend to recover not less than 90 percent and we intend to create 120,000 jobs over the next five years.”

The Minister earlier on Tuesday indicated that the government intends creating 120,000 jobs under the youth entrepreneurship programmes within five years to help reduce youth unemployment and bolster the economy.

He said 19,000 young entrepreneurs and start-ups have been supported with capacity-building initiatives and funding to implement their business ideas within two years, noting that 7,000 of them were trained in 2017 and 12,000 are being trained this year.