The formal sector employs only two percent of the Ghanaian workforce each year – NEIP

General News of Saturday, April 6, 2019

Source: GNA

2019-04-06

Mr. Franklin Owusu Karikari, Director of Business Support for the National Entrepreneurship Innovation Plan (NEIP), said Franklin Franklin Owusu Karikari, out of the 250,000 Ghanaians who have entered the Ghanaian labor market every year .

He said the remaining 98 per cent were counting on the informal sector to find a job, adding that last year the country had produced more than 90,000 graduates and that most of them remained unemployed.

Karikari commended the government for the Nation Builders Corps (NaBco) program, which it said mobilized 100,000 of the 160,000 graduates who applied for the program last year.

He spoke at an entrepreneurship awareness seminar held in Sunyani and organized by the Sunyani Technical University (STU) with the support of the Ghana Oil Company Limited (GOIL).

It was on the theme: "Changing Minds, From Job Seekers to Job Creators: Adopting Entrepreneurship as a Career Option".

Mr Karikari expressed his embarrbadment at the worsening unemployment situation in the country and called on graduates to develop their interest and to engage in entrepreneurship to seek employment.

"Your certificates alone are not enough to give you jobs," he told the students, inviting them to form groups, organize extra-curricular activities and develop modules and ideas for work.

He said that last year, NEIP had trained about 70,000 unemployed graduates, but had been able to help around 2,000 of them create and grow their businesses.

Mr Karikari said that a good business plan and a good idea would allow students and entrepreneurs to seek support from NEIP. He advised them to write proposals and look for online opportunities to establish themselves.

He said that good packaging and good branding would bring them products in local and international markets.

Mr Karikari said that waste management, oil and gas, agribusiness, ICT, fashion, tourism and microfinance offered tremendous business opportunities and advised unemployed graduates of 39, explore these areas.

Judge Solomon Korantwi-Barimah, Vice Chancellor of the STU, said that youth unemployment could be reduced if students considered choosing an entrepreneurship program.

He said that the university, through its Entrepreneurship Development and External Financing Unit (BEDEFU) and with the support of GOIL, had initiated the creation of a Business Development Center. and Entrepreneurship (BEDC), its center for entrepreneurship.

"The personal initiative is about helping our students, businesses and other innovators recognize opportunities, develop, market and market ideas and motivate them to bring out their entrepreneurial skills."

It will also work to narrow the gap between industry expectations and student capabilities by encouraging them to become self-employed and thus create an "employer culture".

Dr. Korantwi-Barimah thanked GOIL for its support of the University and advised students to take advantage of the Center, which would become a catalyst facilitating the emergence of competent first-generation entrepreneurs.

This goal can be achieved by transitioning existing small and medium-sized enterprises to growth-oriented businesses through skills training, awareness programs, research and institution building.