Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta says the government is committed to supporting the YouStart Initiative with an amount of GH₵200 million.
According to him, this amount is to support and encourage more young people to venture into entrepreneurship.
YouStart seeks to support young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, access to market, training and technical skills, compliance and quality assurance support and business development support services that will enable them start, build and grow their own businesses.
“On our own, we are committing GH₵200 million to ensure that more young persons are supported into entrepreneurship,” he said on the floor of Parliament during the reading of the 2024 Budget.
Mr Ofori-Atta explained that the government was in talks with the World Bank to secure additional financing worth US$150 million to support youth-led businesses.
The Finance Minister said exactly a year ago since the project was launched, a total of 23,695 young people comprising 5,183 males and 18,512 females have benefited from Basic Level training by the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA).
He added that out of the number 7,975 comprising 2,474 males and 5,501 females progressed and completed the Intermediate Level training, with 4,514 beneficiaries comprising 1,679 males and 2,835 females also progressing to the Advance Level.
Again, he said the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) trained a total of 2,000 beneficiaries under the Government of Ghana-sponsored YouStart DEP.
Meanwhile, he said the GEA has commenced disbursement of grants to beneficiaries who have completed the Intermediate and Advanced Levels training.
He added, “It is expected that at least 5,000 of the 1st batch of beneficiaries would be supported with startup grants.”