‘Set Up $1bn Entrepreneurship Fund’

Government has been advised to establish an entrepreneurship fund that will help address the high unemployment rate among graduates in the country.

Kofi Amoah, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Citizen Kofi, a multi-purpose entertainment centre in Accra, gave the advice during the 7th biennial congress of past students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) at Koforidua.

It was themed: “Reducing Graduate Unemployment, the role of Technocrats”.

According to Dr Amoah, it was not enough for governments to talk about job creation and ignore the private and informal sector which could help absorb greater percentage of unemployed youth.

He pointed out that if indeed the private sector was the engine of growth as being espoused by government and political parties, “then any government, which thinks about the future of the unemployed youth, particularly graduates should set up $1billion entrepreneurship fund to help graduates and entrepreneurs with fertile business dreams to set up their own businesses.”

He said India’s high technology revolution and American’s Silicon Valley would not have happened without such a firm commitment by their respective governments through the injection of so much capital to make such revolution a reality.

Stressing that the massive injection of capital into physical infrastructure like roads and bridges could not serve any meaningful purpose except to become arteries of commerce which were almost non-existent, he noted: “We can build roads but at the same time let us build businesses to employ and challenge our youth and through them produce goods and services we need as well as compete with others in the global market place.”

He said Ghana must also have regional development plans to help focus on the natural resources which are unique to each region. Those, according to him, could be the needed catalyst to spark economic development, create job opportunities in each region and help reduce the present unhealthy migration of the youth to the cities for non-existent jobs.

He said the nation should provide opportunities to young graduates, stressing that the socio-economic development of the country should not be dictated by foreigners but rather anchored in the taste, desires, needs and drives of the people.

The CEO of Kama Group of Companies, Dr Michael Agyekum Addo, who is also a past student of KNUST, said the world was at an entrepreneurship age because the formal sector was choked and employees were being laid off because of advancement in computer technology.

According to him, budding graduates must start their own small businesses and with time, innovation and ingenuity they would grow to become big business people.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong to start by frying eggs or selling tea by the roadside adding innovation to the way the egg is fried in order to attract customers and with time you can add something else like cooked or fried rice to it and with time you can have your own restaurant and with time open more of such restaurants in many parts of the country,” he advised.

He said by these examples one could become a very successful businessman and also employ people to work for him.