Picture of a market at Kumasi
The Ghanaian investors have to invest more in youth owned start-ups to boost youth engagement in entrepreneurship, business incubators, and youth empowerment hubs in the Ashanti Region expressed their worries.
At the Maiden Kumasi Entrepreneurship Talk series, young entrepreneurs bemoaned the low-interest local investors are having in start-ups.
Youth engagement officer of Equips Hub Kumasi, Mr. Adeola Onafuwa indicated it is about time the government chain out inclusive policies and interventions that would ease the cost of doing business for start-ups such as, import and export duties waivers.
“Research has shown, 70 per cent of Kumasi market shares are owned by entrepreneurs of whom, 50 percent are women. However, much attention has not been given to them,” said Mr. Onafuwa.
According to the Youth officer, there is a need for policymakers to know what is feasible for entrepreneurs.
“There is a need for policymakers to propose sustainable interventions on how issues affecting young entrepreneurs in Ghana can be tackled not ‘bedroom solutions’ they think can work. They need to know what is effective and what is good’’ he added.
Speaking on the need for hubs to forge partnerships, a Youth coach at the NBU Hub Mr. Shuaibu Fuseini explained, hubs in the region has to collaborate on projects in fostering friendly relationships amongst them.
The Kumasi Entrepreneurship Talk series was convened by a youth empowerment center Equips Hub with support from Kumasi Hive, NBU Hub; HapaSpace.
It gathered hundreds of budding entrepreneurs for an evening of success stories sharing, the good, the bad, and the way forward of successful young business owners.
