20,000 Youth jobs initiative unveiled
A new intervention to facilitate the employment of 20,000 young people as a practical step towards a reduction in youth unemployment has been unveiled in Sunyani, the Bono regional capital.
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The Business and Employment Assistance Programme (BEAP), a flagship initiative of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), will nurture young entrepreneurs and empower them to generate employment opportunities for the large pool of unemployed youth in the country.
It is expected to provide opportunity for 10,000 employers in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector with the aim to revive MSMEs affected by the global pandemic to re-hire at least two employees they have laid off, employ new ones and provide essential skills for enhanced productivity.
Targeted to benefit young people between 16 and 35 years in all sectors, it is also expected to cushion the impact of the economic difficulties on the country’s most economically active population.
An amount of GH¢120 million allocated to the initiative will be distributed among beneficiary MSMEs, with each expected to engage a maximum of five employees.
Each employee will receive a monthly allowance of GH¢500 as a top-up to their regular wages for a year as a way of offering crucial support for businesses to recover and expand.
The MSMEs will also be connected to the YEA Job Centres and applicants looking for work experience and job opportunities, with recruitment assistance to support beneficiary businesses with the selection of the employees.
It will also provide pre-employment and work readiness training to beneficiaries to enhance their skills and development.
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BEAP will provide up to GH¢500 monthly support to businesses for every employee they engage.
The salary support is expected to last up to 12 months.
Overall, the programme is to strengthen Ghana's economic resilience by safeguarding jobs, enhancing employment and promoting business stability.
Launch
The launch of the programme yesterday brought together hundreds of people mainly the youth, representatives of the Ghana Employers Association, the Ghana Startup Network and the Association of Small Scale Industries, all partners of the initiative.
Others are the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Ghana European Centre and the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs.
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who launched the initiative, said it was one of the several programmes being implemented to respond to the economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said it would also respond to the risks of mass layoffs during economic crises, particularly by MSMEs.
Qualification
Under the programme, the jobs to be supported must be based and performed in the country.
Beneficiary MSMEs are expected to have up to five active salary support (per Business Registration Number) at a time in order to benefit from the programme.
Recruitment update
Dr Bawumia said the government had recruited 2.1 million people in the public sector in the last seven years and facilitated 9,075 recruitments in the private sector.
“What I can say in all humility is that what the government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been able to do in terms of recruiting people in public and private sector and growing of the economy have not been done by any other government since independence".
“However, we still have large amount of youth unemployment.
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That is the reality we face because our population is about 31 million, but if you look at the demographics of this population, you will see that 73 per cent of the population is below 35 years,” Dr Bawumia said.
The Vice-President said the YEA over the years had implemented several sustainable employment initiatives as part of efforts to mitigate the unemployment menace.
The BEAP by the YEA, he said, was a testament of the agency’s commitment to the cause of providing sustainable employment for Ghanaian youth.
Vice-President Bawumia stressed that YEA had over the years implemented several initiatives and programmes as part of efforts to mitigate the youth unemployment menace, including engaging 21,000 youth under the Community Police Assistants and Community Health Workers modules.
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Again, 2,000 youth had been engaged under the Youth in ICT module in collaboration with the Ghana Digital Centres Ltd.
He stated that a partnership with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme had resulted in the training of 15,000 Ghanaian youth in business skills, corporate compliances,and financial sustainability practices.
“Another partnership with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture will engage 20,000 youth under Phase Two of the Planting for Food and Jobs programme,” Dr Bawumia stated.
He said the beneficiaries under the module would be certified after their training and provided with the requisite tools and equipment to set up enterprises on their own.
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Recovery programmes
Dr Bawumia indicated that the government had implemented several programmes after the COVID-19 pandemic to help businesses to recover from the challenges of the pandemic.
He said BEAP was to help businesses that could not recover in spite of the initiatives to fully recover.
Dr Bawumia said the government was aware of challenges facing businesses and expressed the government’s commitment to create the enabling environment to boost their growth.
For his part, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, commended YEA for coming up with the initiative in support of businesses and to offer opportunities for the unemployed.
He advised the public to take advantage of the initiative and other programmes to revive their businesses and create decent job opportunities for the unemployed.
The Chief Executive Officer of YEA, Kofi Baah Agyepong, said the programme had come at the right time to deal with rising unemployment.