Initiated by the Youth Employ­ment Agency’s (YEA), as one of its flagship programmes, YEA aims to nurture young entrepre­neurs, empower them to generate employment opportunities for the large pool of unemployed youths in the country.

Vice President Dr Bawumia third from right) interacting with some dignitaries at the programme. With them include Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah (right)

The GH¢120 million programme is anticipated to benefit 10,000 medium and small scale enterprises as well as 20,000 young Ghanaians, serving as a beacon of hope for those navigating the aftermath of the global economic downturn.

The primary objective is to revive micro to small-scale enterprises affected by the global pandemic, enabling them to rehire laid-off em­ployees, employ new workers, and provide essential skills for enhanced productivity

Addressing the gathering, the Vice President noted that the intro­duction of the employment assis­tance programme, was a testimony that the Agency was committed to the cause of providing sustainable employment for Ghanaian youth.

He mentioned 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,” he said.

The business sector, he said was particularly affected by the pandem­ic amid closure of businesses during the partial and total lockdown posed liquidity challenges for some businesses, and subsequently led to employers laying off staff or having to reduce staff salaries in a bid to keep businesses afloat.

He said “the Ghana Business Tracker Survey conducted between May and June 2020 by the Ghana Statistical Service in collaboration with the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme, indicated that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, 46.1 per cent of Ghanaian businesses had to reduce wages whereas 4.1 per cent of businesses laid off workers.”

Despite these initiatives, he said some businesses have still not fully recovered and need all the available assistance to help them get back on their feet.

According to him, there still existed some associated problems facing businesses including financial distress is the increase in youth unemployment and chronically low wages, hence the birth of the business and employment assistance programme.

“This initiative seeks to assist em­ployers reemploy laid off workers and retain existing employees by providing a maximum of GH¢500 per employee as salary support….I am particularly excited about the relief this initiative will provide to the Ghanaian youth, a demographic that is very dear to me.”

Dr Bawumia commended the Board and Management of the Youth Employment Agency for their unwavering commitment and dedication to fulfilling their man­date towards the Ghanaian youth.

On his part, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of YEA, Kofi Baah Agyepong explained that compre­hensive information and real-time updates would be disseminated across all of the agency’s social media platforms.

The programme, he said held the promise of not only supporting young business people, but also ad­dressing the pressing issue of youth unemployment in the country.

Kofi Baah Agyepong said “the severe impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses nation­wide, BEAP comes as part of the Akufo-Addo government’s COVID-19 Economic Recovery Programme (COVID-19 ERP). This initiative, in response to economic challenges, seeks to rejuvenate businesses and provide a much-needed boost to the econo­my.”