Mahmoud Jajah
The Government of Ghana must take Youth Entrepreneurship very seriously. We want to see concrete programs and actions in supporting young entrepreneurs.
For instance, the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Program (TEEP) has a very clear roadmap for supporting young African entrepreneurs. They provide both technical and financial support, as well as connections for young African entrepreneurs to start and run their own businesses.
Mr. Tony Elumelu, himself a very successful and accomplished entrepreneur, committed an amount of $100 million over a period of ten years for supporting young African entrepreneurs. This figure has since shot up because of support from other partners.
The Government of Ghana can do better than Mr. Elumelu. If our Government is really serious about solving the youth unemployment crisis in Ghana, I will suggest to His Excellency President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and His Excellency Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia to set up a One Billion Dollar Youth Entrepreneurs Fund to kick start the journey of making Ghana a Startup Nation by 2030.
This fund should provide the needed and necessary venture capital to support young people with crazy ideas to take their ideas to market. The fund should build the startup ecosystem where young people, especially young graduates should be willing to start their own businesses than look for jobs elsewhere.
Unless the government builds such an ecosystem, talking and rhetorics won’t build and support young entrepreneurs. There should be a deliberate bold government policy and programs, backed by funding, for Ghana to become a Startup Nation.
Mahmoud Jajah
Founder/CEO, ZongoVation Hub
[email protected]
Kawokudi, Accra