YES Initiative won't discriminate – Mahama

President John Dramani Mahama, on Wednesday gave the assurance that the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) initiative would not discriminate against Ghanaian entrepreneurs on grounds of social and educational background.

Instead, he said, the acceptance of their applications and subsequent awards of financial support would be based on convincing business ideas and their sustainability.

"I am told that one gentleman called Eric, who was not proficient in English language is among the recipients. He boldly convinced the panel members in his native language-twi that he could produce quality shoes and create jobs for others, and today he stands out as one of the beneficiaries."

President Mahama gave the assurance when he presented scrolls and cheques to 107 entrepreneurs who had gone through all the interviews and hurdles to receive the first batch total amount of GH¢ 2.7 million to commence their businesses.

On Aug 12, last year President Mahama launched the YES initiative with a seed capital of GH¢ 10 million to support young Ghanaian entrepreneurs to establish their own businesses.

The essence is to reduce the over dependence of young graduates on white-collar jobs and to provide opportunities for the entrepreneurs to become employers in their areas of operation.

Subsequently, the YES Secretariat received more than 2,000 applications after which an initial 107 people were selected as first batch of beneficiaries.

President Mahama said apart from the 107 recipients, 350 other applicants are defending their business plans and would be accepted among the second batch of beneficiaries.

He said government would continue to create opportunities for all categories of professionals and people to harness their potentials which would subsequently inure to the benefit of all Ghanaians.

The President commended the recipients for making the grade to receive an average of GH¢ 26,000 each and gave the assurance that government would create enabling environment for businesses to flourish.

This, he said, would be focused on the fixing of the macroeconomic imbalances with aggressively fashioned programmes to ensure a better business environment in subsequent years.

President Mahama said government has availed GH¢ 120 million to rice, poultry and other farmers to step up their production and eventually reduce importation of such products in coming years.

He said under the broiler project, it is anticipated that Ghana would save about $150 million from the reduction in the importation of poultry products.

The President said to reduce importation of essential drugs, government has also allocated a total of $59 million to pharmaceutical companies to step up production to meet the domestic demands and export the excess medicines for foreign exchange.

He appealed to the beneficiaries to be financially disciplined to break even and pay back the facility to enable others in the queue to benefit from the funds.

The programme was attended by Mr Julius Debrah, Chief of Staff and Dr Valerie Sawyerr, Senior Policy Advisor and Head of Presidential Delivery Unit, Ministers of state and family members of the beneficiaries.