Bawumia champions youth jobs, enterprise and dignity -

By ELVIS DARKO, Accra

New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has renewed his call for greater economic opportunities for Ghana’s youth, saying the country must create an environment in which young people can secure decent work, build businesses and achieve a stable future.

In a message marking International Youth Day, Dr Bawumia acknowledged the difficulties confronting many young Ghanaians, particularly the struggle to find jobs and the high cost of starting and sustaining businesses.

He said that despite differences in background and circumstances, young Ghanaians shared common aspirations: to find decent employment, establish businesses, live with dignity and have the opportunity to determine their own futures.

“Different contexts, common aspirations and a shared belief that Ghana can be a place where young people build the future they want,” Dr Bawumia said.

The former Vice-President said Ghana’s youthful population remained one of the country’s greatest assets because of the talent, determination and ambition demonstrated by young people across different sectors.

He argued that the responsibility of policymakers was to ensure that economic opportunities matched the ambitions of the youth and enabled them to contribute meaningfully to national development.

The message comes against the backdrop of a persistent debate over youth unemployment, entrepreneurship and the ability of the Ghanaian economy to absorb thousands of young people entering the labour market each year.

It also reflects themes that have featured prominently in Dr Bawumia’s public statements and policy interventions during his tenure as Vice-President, particularly his emphasis on entrepreneurship, digital skills, technical training and access to finance.

From jobs to entrepreneurship
Dr Bawumia has repeatedly argued that addressing youth unemployment requires expanding opportunities for young people to become entrepreneurs and employers, rather than relying solely on government jobs.

One of the major interventions associated with the Akufo-Addo- Bawumia administration was YouStart, a youth-focused programme designed to provide funding and technical support to young people and youth-led businesses to enable them to start, build and expand their enterprises.

The Ghana Enterprises Agency describes YouStart as a vehicle for providing funding and technical support to youth and youth-led businesses, with the broader objective of creating jobs, encouraging innovation and giving hope to Ghana’s young population.

In November 2023, Dr Bawumia disclosed at the YouStart Grant Expo that government had earmarked GH¢100 million for grants and training for thousands of predominantly youth-led start-ups and micro, small and medium-scale enterprises.

He said the programme was intended to help create a critical mass of young entrepreneurs capable of leveraging Ghana’s youthful population to drive economic empowerment and development.

The initiative was framed around the idea that young Ghanaians should not only be prepared for existing jobs but should also be equipped and financed to create businesses and employment opportunities for others.

Expanding access to employment
Another intervention was the Business and Employment Assistance Programme (BEAP), launched through the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) in December 2023.

The programme was projected to support 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises and provide employment opportunities for 20,000 young people.

The initiative was designed partly to help businesses recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic by providing salary support of up to GH¢500 per employee for a period of one year.

At the launch, Dr Bawumia described Ghana’s youth as the country’s “greatest resource” and said it was a collective responsibility to position them to contribute significantly to economic development.

He also cited other interventions under the YEA, including programmes involving community policing, community health workers, ICT, entrepreneurship and technical skills.

The YEA had also collaborated with the Ghana TVET system and the Energy Commission to train thousands of artisans—including plumbers, tilers, masons, electricians, carpenters and fabricators—with beneficiaries receiving certification and tools to establish their own enterprises.

The YEA’s broader mandate has been to move young people from unemployment towards employment and self-employment through skills training, internships, job placement and entrepreneurship support.

Digital skills as the next frontier
Dr Bawumia also placed considerable emphasis on digital skills as a pathway to new employment opportunities.

In August 2024, while serving as Vice-President, he announced a government objective to train one million young people in digital proficiency, arguing that digital competence would be increasingly important for participation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

He said gaps in digital literacy and limited opportunities were preventing some young people from fully participating in the digital economy.

He cited initiatives including the distribution of 1.3 million free computer tablets to senior high school students and expansion of connectivity under the Ghana Rural Telephony and Digital Inclusion Project as part of efforts to create a more digitally inclusive society.

The emphasis on digital skills was linked to opportunities in sectors ranging from agriculture and healthcare to education, manufacturing and finance, with the potential for young Ghanaians to work and collaborate beyond the domestic market.

Building entrepreneurs from universities
Dr Bawumia’s youth empowerment agenda also extended to universities and young innovators.

In 2021, he helped launch the University of Ghana Innovation and Entrepreneurship Programme (UGIEP), an initiative aimed at strengthening entrepreneurship and innovation among students and young entrepreneurs.

The programme was built around five pillars: the UG Start-up Challenge, UG Incubator, UG Venture Accelerator, UG Venture Fund and UG Alumni Angel Investor Network.

The programme included a $100,000 start-up component to provide funding and coaching to students and young entrepreneurs in partnership with the Global Entrepreneurship Network.

At the launch, Dr Bawumia urged the programme managers to work with institutions including the National Youth Authority, Youth Enterprises Fund, National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme and Ghana Enterprises Agency to help young people create sustainable jobs and opportunities.

The initiative reflected an approach in which universities were expected to become not only institutions for academic learning but also centres for innovation, enterprise creation and employment.

Empowering vulnerable young women
Dr Bawumia also launched the Kayayie Empowerment Programme in May 2024, targeting 5,000 head porters with entrepreneurial and vocational skills.

The programme offered training in areas including baking and beading, alongside financial management, personal healthcare and entrepreneurship.

The intervention was designed to provide participants with practical skills and opportunities to improve their livelihoods rather than remain trapped in precarious informal work.

The opportunity challenge
Dr Bawumia’s latest message, however, goes beyond listing programmes. It raises the broader question of whether Ghana can create enough quality opportunities to match the aspirations of its rapidly growing youth population.

His argument is that talent and ambition are already present; what is required is an economic environment capable of converting those attributes into productive activity.

That means access to jobs, affordable financing, relevant skills, reliable digital infrastructure and an environment in which young businesses can survive and grow.

The experience of the previous youth-focused interventions also illustrates the complexity of the challenge.

A review of Ghana’s youth-employment programmes has identified recurring concerns around coordination, sustainability and the need for stronger evaluation of programme outcomes.

For Dr Bawumia, the answer has increasingly centred on combining traditional employment opportunities with entrepreneurship, technical skills and digital capabilities.

His latest International Youth Day message therefore places the issue of youth opportunity back at the centre of the national conversation.

He said Ghana must continue to believe in the ability of its young people to shape the country’s future despite the economic and employment difficulties confronting them.

The message is ultimately a call for a shift from viewing Ghana’s youth primarily as job seekers to recognising them as potential entrepreneurs, innovators, skilled professionals and job creators.

For a country with a large and ambitious young population, the scale and quality of those opportunities could determine whether demographic growth becomes an economic dividend or deepens pressure on jobs, businesses and household incomes.