Ghana government supports 260 young entrepreneurs with GH¢10m
The government has disbursed a total of GH¢10 million to 260 young entrepreneurs in the north to help boost their businesses.
The amount was to help build a capacity of the entrepreneurs to help play a leading role in creating jobs for the transformation of the economy.
The 260 young entrepreneurs received the money during the weekend in Tamale at a program aimed at celebrating and awarding financial support to young people engaged in entrepreneurship through the Presidential Business Support Programme (PBSP) initiative on the theme: “Empowering Ghanaian Businesses”.
The programme was organized by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council in collaboration with the Ministry of Business Development and attended by the Ministry of Energy, Metropolitan and Municipal Chief Executives (MMDCEs), Religious and Traditional leaders and other stakeholders.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, presenting the premium business support to the beneficiaries said the PBSP sought to provide young entrepreneurs with business development services, start-up incubators and funding as well as technical support to enable them grow and become successful.
He said the PBSP was set up within the context of Ghana’s long term strategic vision to consolidate its middle income status, build an industry driven economy capable of providing decent jobs suitable and sustainable for development.
Dr Bawumia said entrepreneurship was very important to the private sector if they were to drive growth and encouraged them to partner with government to create jobs and opportunities for the teeming young populations.
He said over 1,000 micro, small and medium enterprises in the three northern regions applied for support from this programme and all of them were given the opportunity to go through a well structured training to build their capacities to manage their business.
Dr Bawumia said 260 people were competitively selected through the recommendation of six private incubation houses in a transparent efficient and equitable manner.
He encouraged the beneficiaries to look beyond Ghana and set their sights outside the country to market their products and businesses.
Dr Bawumia said the beneficiaries were also to receive continuous training and capacity building, mentorship and business advisory services, free accounting services, access to business networking opportunities as well as access to seed capitals ranging from GH¢5,000 to GH¢100,000 per business at an interest rate of 10 per cent.
“Key among the businesses are agribusiness and agro-processing, smock weaving, Information Communication Technology (ICT), animal and livestock rearing, food and beverages, fashion and clothing among others” he said.
Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, the Minister for Business Development urged all entrepreneurs to be very innovative and research more to improve on their businesses.
He said as part of their programmes they would be launching the women support programme before the end of this year to support women entrepreneurs and their businesses.
Sheihu Dalhu Abdul Mumin, the Zongo Chief of Tamale said youth entrepreneurship programme would play a vital role in creating job opportunities in the country.
He appealed to government to extend the support to people who are capable and competent devoid of political affiliations
Sheihu Mumin urged the Minister for Business Development to inject effective monitoring mechanism so as to ensure that this intervention was accomplished successfully.
He advised the beneficiaries not to disappoint the people who trust them with this support and entreated them to make good use of the support offered to them for the benefit of their communities and Ghana at large.
Source: GNA