The Finance Minister, Hon. Ken Ofori Atta on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, delivered the 2022 budget saying it will build a sustainable entrepreneurial nation.
He presented the 2022 budget dubbed the Agyenwa budget at the parliament on the theme “Building a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Nation: Fiscal Consolidation and Job Creation.”
The agyenkwa budget is going to focus on the private sector through entrepreneurship development. According to him, the government is going to prepare policies that will empower the existing private businesses to be active and dynamic for it to create jobs for the youth.
” We will build an entrepreneurial nation by aggressively implementing programs that empower the majority of our young people to exploit their God-given talents to take risks and become job creators instead of job seekers”.
Hon. Ken Ofori Attah says since there is the need to build an entrepreneurial nation, the budget will focus on the private sector through entrepreneurship development for the youth to be job creators but not job seekers.
He said the budget will again create a conducive environment for entrepreneurs to prosper and create more employment avenues to support existing programs.
He added that the Akuffo Addo government can boast of implementing several entrepreneurial schemes that have addressed youth unemployment and skills development from 2017 to 2021 yet still unemployment is a challenge.
According to his indication, Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) is a government initiative to address graduate unemployment and to solve social problems in health, education, agriculture, technology, etc has provided employment opportunities to 100,000 youth.
The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) also working under the Akuffo government was established under the Youth Employment Act 2015 (Acts 887) to empower young people between 15 to 35 years to contribute meaningfully to the socio-economic and sustainable development of the nation has as well as employ 80,538 young people.
The Youth Afforestation program is an initiative to help reduce the rate of youth unemployment by building more trees has engaged 44,682 youth whiles the National Alternative Employment and Livelihood Program (NAELP) is an initiative that has been designed to create thousands of jobs to alleviate the hardships of those affected by the government’s efforts to sanitize illegal mining known as galamsey has also being introduced.
The minister added that the budget will address challenges that entrepreneurs face such challenges are access to credit and finance regulatory and tax burden, lack of skills as well as mentorship. “We will do this while intensifying our efforts to support the private sector to expand and create jobs, He voiced.
THE YOUSTART INITIATIVE
Hon. Ken Ofori Attah said because of that government is going to introduce another initiative in 2022 called the ” You Start” initiative which will use GHC1 billion each year to be able to create 1 million jobs which will partner with the finance institutions and development Partners that will add up to 2 billion.
Talking about loans, he pronounced that the ‘Youstart’ will support the youth-led enterprises with loans. The loans will come in various forms. The district-level loans will be GHC10,000 after 2-3 months of training.
The soft loans of up to GHC50,000 will help start-ups particularly young graduates and school leavers. The small businesses and the starter packs of up to GHC50,000 for individuals and GHC10,000 for organizations. Of GHC100,000 to GHC400,000 at concessional rates for Small and Mid-Size Enterprises (SMEs) through financial institutions.
“In addition, our local banks have agreed to a package that will result in increasing their SME portfolio up to GHC5 billion over the next 3 years. This, Mr. Speaker, results in an inprecedented historic 10bn cedis commitment to the private sector and Youstart over the next 3 years.
” Youstart is a vehicle for supporting young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training, technical skills, and mentoring to enable them to launch and operate their own businesses,” he said.
The ‘YouStart’ will be operationalized by March 2022 and it’s going to work in partnership with the Ghana Entreprises Agency (GEA), the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (NEIP), and the partner financial institutions will serve as a strong arm for ‘YouStart’.
“Entrepreneurs will be able to supply for support through a dedicated ‘YouStart’ online portal. NEIP will also engage our Faith-Based Organisations as partners for the delivery of essential artisanal skills, business competitions, and feasibility studies, and introduction to financing institutions with a commitment of up to10% of GOG contribution to the YouStart Program.
In addition, the banking industry has committed GHC75m, over the next three years to collectively engage in skills development programs for a minimum of 150,000 young graduates and youth entrepreneurs by engaging the activities. To achieve this, the banks have pledged to review their internal processes and procedures to facilitate easier access to credit by SME’s. My ministry is working with the Ghana Bar Association (GBA) to conclude the terms to ensure the facilitation of GH¢ 5bn over the next 3 years,” he concluded.
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