As part of efforts to address the high youth unemployment rate in Ghana, Government announced an ambitious entrepreneurial programme in the 2022 budget known as YouStart, with the objective of building an entrepreneurial nation and creating at least 1 million jobs for the youth in the next 3 years (2022 – 2025). The YouStart programme is a vehicle through which Government intends to provide funding and technical support to the youth (18-40 years) and youth-led businesses to assist them start, build and grow their own businesses.
The programme is benchmarked against similar successful models in the world including the Small Business Administration (SBA) in the US and the British Business Bank, UK.
Through this programme, Government intends to commit about GHS10 billion over the next 3 years towards the creation of at least a million jobs in the economy. This will be achievedusing part of the proceeds from the Electronic Transaction Levy (e-Levy) and other funding sources as such the World Bank, IFC, MasterCard, select PFIs and other DFIs.
The YouStart programme forms part of the GHS100 billion Ghana Cares “ObaatanPa” programme which was launched by Government in November 2020 to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, return the country to a sustained path of robust growth and to create a stronger, more resilient and transformed economy.
This document proposes strategies for the implementation of the YouStart programme, the funding model and operational framework for the programme.