A member of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communications Team, Solomon Owusu has described as a mistake, the government’s provision of funds to support the youth and youth-led businesses to assist them start, build and grow their own businesses.
According to him, the nature of Ghana’s business terrain makes it very difficult for a start-up company to succeed, adding that the government is likely to end up throwing money away if it continues to pump money into businesses of novices.
Speaking on Ghana Kasa show on Kasapa FM/Agoo TV Wednesday, Solomon Owusu said the government should rather give such funding to existing businesses to expand.
“One of the policies which I think the government made a mistake in introducing that I think going forward should not be repeated is providing funding to NABCO trainees who want to venture into business under the YouStart programme. That money should have been given to existing businesses because the terrain that we operate in this country makes it very difficult for a start-up company to thrive. Our youth should make no mistakes, anyone who tells them that what they’ve learnt in their textbooks is the same applied in the business field is telling them a lie. Doing business in Ghana is tough, too difficult in this country. Giving such funding to a beginner is not the way to go because they’ll end up making huge losses. The youth might have studied Business Administration in school but do not know the intricacies of doing business in Ghana. What is in the book is like day and night when it comes to doing business in reality.”
He added: “Instead of providing funding for start-up businesses, give that money to existing businesses and give them lower interest rates and they can then absorb all the NABCO trainees. Then after building them up business-wise, if they (NABCO trainees) want to go solo, by that time the government would have accrued huge revenue from taxes paid by these existing businesses, the government can then extend funding to micro and small-scale businesses. Until that is done, if the government provides funding through YouStart it will only be throwing money away.”
YouStart is a vehicle through which Government intends to provide funding and technical support to youth and youth-led businesses that fall within this category to assist them start, build and grow their own businesses.
The YouStart Initiative offers a solution to the unemployment canker in Ghana. The consolidated approach and the major drive towards entrepreneurship under YouStart, is to help business-minded NABCO trainees who are currently at the exit phase of the NABCO Scheme.
Through this programme, Government intends to commit about GHS10 billion over the next 3 years towards the creation of at least a million jobs in the economy. This will be achieved using part of the proceeds from the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-Levy) and other funding sources as such the World Bank, IFC, MasterCard, select PFIs and other DFIs.
Source: Kasapafmonline.com
