Vice President Dr Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia on Monday launched the Business and Employment Assistance Programme, an initiative of the Youth and Employment Agency (YEA) that sought to create jobs for 20,000 young people nationwide.
Under the implementation of the flagship programme, YEA would provide up to GH¢500 grant support to 10,000 registered Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMSEs).
This is to empower the SMSEs to create opportunities and engage more of the youth to help tackle the rising unemployment rate in the country.
Alhaji Dr Bawumia explained the programme was a testament to the government’s focus on job creation, saying “Our focus over the last seven years had been looking at different ways to create jobs for the people”.
Speaking at a ceremony in Sunyani, the Vice President stressed the government’s determination to create more jobs and make life better for the youth of the country which formed a chunk of the national population.
He said though the government was doing a lot because about 73 per cent of the nation’s population was the youth below 35 years, more ought to be done to fetch them jobs.
Vice President Alhaji Bawumia therefore commended the Board and management of the YEA for their commitment and innovations towards job creation and poverty reduction in the country.
Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, also commended the Vice President for his commitment towards restructuring the YEA to make the Agency relevant in providing jobs for the people.
“Through the Vice President, everything we need to train our young people in trade is ready,” he stated and called on the teeming unemployed youth to take advantage of the numerous government socio-economic intervention programmes to build their lives.
Mr Kofi Baah Agyepong, the Chief Executive Officer of the YEA, explained the implementation of the programme, which would also benefit operators of car washing bays, chop bars, and provision stores as a step to salvage the unemployment situation in the country.
GNA