The certification is part of the Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE) Programme.

YIEDIE is a five-year project to create economic opportunities for youth aged 17-24 in Ghana's construction sector by training young women and men in technical construction skills and helping them to start and grow small businesses.

Mrs Maureen Erekua Odoi, the Executive Director of AABN, told the Ghana News Agency during the graduation and certification ceremony that the programme was organised for young entrepreneurs, who had undergone six months training.

The young entrepreneurs comprised of 124 from Kumasi, 134 from Tema, 49 from Ashaiman and 25 from Accra.

The ceremony was on the theme: "Empowering YIEDIE youth; through AABN innovative Business Development Service.

The event was marked by a Grand Pitch of business plans by some selected young entrepreneurs through a competitive YEBGP process, pitching their business plans.

She said the five-year programme seeks to support 23,700 young people with training in technical, life and entrepreneurship skills leading to employment.

She said there were 18 finalists in this year's programme with 11 business groups and Seven individual businesses.

She said apart from providing business advisory support services to the entrepreneurs, they also link these young people with other government institutions, who provided similar support systems.

He said the YIEDIE component had a fund that provided seed capital of $1,000 to start their businesses.

She said artisans globally were in high demand, especially in developing countries, where infrastructural development and real estate sector provided potential business opportunities for many businesses in this increasingly competitive global market.

She appealed to individuals and corporate organisations to invest in the businesses of these start-ups to grow their operation.

She said there were high business failure among young entrepreneurs; hence, they have the business support services to link the businesses to other opportunity.

Mrs Odoi commended the graduands for their hard work, which had enabled them to acquire the requisite skills within six months and urged them to bring to bear what they learnt by creating jobs for others.

She pointed out that training the youth in employable skills would help stabilize the nation's economy and advised the them to "dream big, start small and act now."

Mrs Odoi said the construction industry was a fast-growing sector in Ghana's economy and pledged that AABN would continue to support the youth to venture in that sector.