NABCo to be transitioned to YouStart by July – John Kumah

YouStart to create 1million jobs

9 banks partner government to finance youth-led business under YouStart

Interest rates under YouStart will not be more than 10%

The Deputy Finance Minister, Dr John Kumah, has stated that Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCo) will be transitioned into the YouStart programme once its implementation begins on July 1.

He said this is because the NABCo programme after it ended in October 2021 has left beneficiaries stranded.

He made the comments on JoyNews’ Pm Express Business Edition on June 9, 2022.

“We have already engaged the NABCo secretariat, and there has to be a more sustainable way of looking at NABCo. As we said NABCo was for a 3-year period which ended in October 2021, and so we have to have an alternative.”

“Going forward how do we make sure we support these young people who now have experience, ideas and creativity to have access to further training and working capital to be able to start their own businesses and scale-up,” the deputy minister said.

The YouStart programme, according to government will help in the creation of 1 million jobs.

Meanwhile, government is partnering with a consortium of nine banks to provide credit to existing youth-led companies as part of the YouStart programme.

Under the commercial programme of the YouStart initiative, the banks will provide support for existing youth-led businesses with between GH¢100,000 working capital and GH¢500,000 for those in need of capital expenditure.

John Awuah, President of the Ghana Association of Bankers, listed the participating banks as GCB Bank Ltd., Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), Access Bank, Absa Bank, FBN Bank, ADB, Fidelity Bank, Ecobank and Bank of Africa. He was confident that with time, more banks would come on board.

“The banking sector is convinced that government wants to build an entrepreneurial nation through youth entrepreneurship. We have decided that this is good, and we want to grow with the private sector,” he said, adding: “Our advantage is that we are already dealing with the private sector, so we have a fair knowledge of all that goes into making a business work.

"We are confident that with the well-crafted conditions we are offering and our ammunition of funding, we can make fund accessibility easier to enable young entrepreneurs to launch into the deep.”