Package for young graduates into self-employment advocated

Mr Saeed Owusu-Brobbey, Ashanti Regional Manager of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), has called on the government to come out with a package to assist young graduates of the tertiary institutions to go into self-employment.

He said this would be the best and the ultimate solution to graduate unemployment in the country.

Mr Owusu-Brobbey was speaking at the closing ceremony of a three-day entrepreneurship awareness seminar for third year agricultural engineering students of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi at the weekend.

He stressed that the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) would continue to collaborate with all the tertiary institutions to run more of such training programmes, saying "entrepreneurship is a viable means of addressing the ever-increasing problem of unemployment especially among graduates of our institutions"

The Regional Manager assured all small-scale entrepreneurs that the board would not relent in its efforts to create the enabling environment that would result in their efficient performance.

Ms Beatrice Boakye, Head of the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) of NBSSI, said the participants were taken through topics including basic steps in starting a business, sources of support, identification and selection of viable business opportunity and entrepreneurship, prospects and challenges.

She emphasised that the present economic and political thinking favour private sector initiatives as a solution to present day deteriorating economic and employment problems, pointing to the need for developing small-scale enterprises and self-employment.

She called on the students to strengthen their information seeking ability and utilise the services of the BAC to their benefit.

Dr Joseph Offei-Darko, lecturer of the Department of Agricultural Engineering, noted that the job market is becoming sophisticated and expressed the hope that the seminar is going to build their skills.