Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Pius Enam Hadzide has stated that government is aware of the high unemployment rate in the country and is currently rolling out policies and programmes to address the challenge.

According to him, government recognises that the youth constitutes the major source of human capital for transformational agenda of the country and that all efforts are being made to create an enabling environment for skills development, so as to engender job creation and the spirit of entrepreneurship for the sustained growth of the economy.

The Deputy Minister speaking at the workshop for Entrepreneurship for Opportunity Actualization (EOpAct) mentioned plans that would be used by the government to combat the increasing rate of youth unemployment in the country.

Some of the plans he stated are; “the setting up of a Youth Development Authority (YDA) to harmonize and coordinate all government sponsored youth initiatives and policies, refocusing and rebranding of the Youth Enterprises Support (YES) into National Enterprise and Innovation Programme (NEIP) that will provide funding and business development services for businesses owned by young entrepreneurs especially start-ups”.

“Developing industrial parks in all regions targeting young Ghanaians who start or wish to start small businesses to provide them access to workspaces, equipment and basic services including electricity and water. Offering tax incentives to young entrepreneurs to encourage them to initiate start-ups and introducing tax credits and other incentives for companies that hire young graduates from tertiary institutions”.

He further stated that the programmes and policies targeted at the youth will be unproductive if the needed skill challenges are not sufficiently catered for and therefore called on the organisers of the programme Agribusiness in Sustainable Natural African Plant Products (ASNAPP), USAID and AfricaLead to support the government by scaling out efforts that would reach the wider population of unemployed youth with special focus on skills development in the agro-food industry.