Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has launched one of the Youth Employment Agency’s (YEA) flagship programmes, the Business and Employment Assistance Programme (BEAP), at Sunyani in Bono Region.
This initiative aims to nurture young entrepreneurs, empowering them to generate employment opportunities for the large pool of unemployed youths in the country.
Addressing the event, the Vice President noted that the introduction of the Business and Employment Assistance Programme by the YEA is a testament of the agency’s commitment to the cause of providing sustainable employment for the Ghanaian youth.
He stressed the fact that the YEA has, over the years, implemented several initiatives and programmes as part of efforts to mitigate the youth unemployment menace including engaging 21000 youth under the Community Police Assistants and Community Health Workers module and 2000 youth under the Youth in ICT module in collaboration with the Ghana Digital Centres Ltd.
He mentioned that a partnership with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme has resulted in the training of 15000 Ghanaian youth in business skills, corporate compliances and financial sustainability practices.
“Another partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture will engage 20000 youth under Phase 2 of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme”, he said.
Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia also mentioned that the agency has collaborated with the Ghana TVET Service and the Ghana Energy Commission to train 20000 artisans as plumbers, tilers, masons, beauticians, fabricators, glazing workers, carpenters and electricians and under this module, beneficiaries will be duly certified after training and provided with the requisite tools and equipment to set up enterprises of their own.
The business sector, he said, was particularly affected by the pandemic amid closure of businesses during the partial and total lockdown posing liquidity challenges for some businesses and subsequently leading to employers laying off staff or having to reduce staff salaries to keep their businesses afloat.
He said; “The Ghana Business Tracker Survey conducted between May and June 2020 by the Ghana Statistical Service in collaboration with the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme indicated that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 46.1% of Ghanaian businesses had to reduce wages whereas 4.1% of businesses laid off workers.”
Government initiatives such as the Corona Virus Alleviation Programme - Business Support Scheme (CAP-BuSS) and the COVID-19 Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support (Ghana CARES) have provided financial support in the form of grants and soft loans to Ghanaian businesses to help them mitigate their challenges as a result of the COVID-19.
Despite these initiatives, he said, some businesses have still not fully recovered and need all the available assistance to help them get back on their feet.
According to him, there still exists some problems businesses are facing including financial distress, increase in youth unemployment and chronically low wages, hence the birth of the Youth Employment Agency’s Business and Employment Assistance Programme.
“This initiative seeks to assist employers reemploy laid off workers and retain existing employees by providing a maximum of Five Hundred Ghana Cedis (GHS 500.00) per employee as salary support…I am particularly excited about the relief this initiative will provide to the Ghanaian youth, a demographic that is very dear to me. The youth of this country are our greatest resource and it is our collective duty to ensure that they are well positioned to make significant contributions to the economic development of our dear nation.”
He averred that President Akufo-Addo's government has implemented several youth-focused initiatives specifically seeking to address the challenges faced by the Ghanaian youth.
“The YouStart programme, one of such government initiatives, was successfully piloted with 70 beneficiaries and an amount of GH¢1.98 million disbursed to support youth-led (below the age of 40 years) SMEs. This initiative will be further augmented to effectively assist more youth led businesses in the coming years.”
He pointed out that government is very much aware of their complaints and concerns and is very committed to creating a favourable business environment for existing and emerging businesses.
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