Ghana Has 1,140,009 Unemployed Youth; 605,451 Females And 534,558 Males

Chief Accountant at the Ministry of Finance Mr. Andrew Ameckson, has indicated that, the governments programme, YouStart was anticipated to create 1 million jobs, out of which 800,000 were expected to be direct jobs to the Ghanaian youth.

He further added that, the YouStart was a national programme and that eligible applicants would be given the opportunity and support to contribute their quota to the development of the country.

He said these at a public engagement on the YouStart Programme before its official launch, the YouStart Secretariat at the Ministry of Finance met with a cross section of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) in Accra.

The stakeholder meeting was among other things to take the CSOs through the YouStart policy structure, its framework, beneficiary groups requirements and seek their support and suggestions before the official launch of the programme.

Mr. Ameckson further gave some facts and figures on the youth population in the country and stated that, the overall youth population in Ghana from 15 to 35 age range was 11.7 million and the youth unemployment rate was 19.7%, estimated to be 1,140,009. The unemployed females were 22.3% estimated to be 605,451 and unemployed males were 17.4% estimated to be 534,558.

Number of workers who lost their jobs and were seeking work were estimated to be 187,763, the presentation revealed.

He showed that, 50% of the Ghanaian Youth estimated to be 5,872,229 were classified as under employed, this he explained, as working below one’s capacity and that was why the YouStart was extremely essential to ensure that there was enough capacity building to get the best of the teeming youth.

Ms. Patience Arko Boham, an official of the Ministry, also touched on the features, benefits and eligibility criteria of the YouStart programme. She said that applicants were supposed to have a verifiable digital address, have a Ghana Card and two weeks training to qualify for the programme.

She revealed that, the programme was aimed to target the youth between the ages of 18 and 40 years, and after due diligence of the applications, an amount of GHC 50,000 and GHC 100,000 with 4% interest rate payable within a period of three years would be given to individuals and groups as working capital.

Civil Society Organizations present at the meeting included Network for Empowered Youth for Development, SEND GHANA, Ghana Chamber for Youth Entrepreneurs, STAR-Ghana Foundation, Strategic Youth Network for Development.

Others were African Center for Economic Transformation, Centre for Community Livelihood Development, Youth Advocate Ghana, Ghana TVET Service

Implementing agencies under the YouStart programme which included NEIP, KPMG, Legacy and Legacy, representatives from the Ghana Association of Banks were present at the meeting.