We will help you create jobs – Awal tells youth

Business Development Minister, Ibrahim Awal has said government is ready and willing to partner the youth in creating more jobs in order to curb unemployment.

Speaking on the sidelines of the second edition of the CEO summit in Accra on Tuesday, Ibrahim Awal said government had taken account of the high unemployment rate and its rippling effect and had decided to put in place a system that encourages entrepreneurship, particularly among the youth.

“We have a policy initiative called the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation plan. Under this plan, the government intends to train young people on writing business plans and proposals.” Mr. Awal said.

He added, "The challenge of industries today is developing young people with the mindset of developing businesses. We need to create young people who are ready to work not to come out and you would have to train and retrain over and over again."

According to him, the initiative will come out with an incubator and an accelerator program to nurture students to set up their own businesses. The business plans of the young entrepreneurs will be screened with government giving the necessary backing to viable ones. He says young entrepreneurs who are successful will be provided with start-up capital to establish and grow their businesses in order to further create employment for others.

Mr. Awal said the government is looking forward to partnering with companies for internship opportunities for about 10,000 youth. This, he says, is a move to groom the youth and create employment for the ones who perform well during their internship.

In order to provide an incentive for industries to partner this initiative, the senior minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo said the government will consider tax alignments which will seek to provide tax cuts for companies who partner the government in this initiative.