Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta
Finance Minister has presented the 2022 budget
The budget presentation is in accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 constitution and Section 21 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016
Ofori-Atta announced a new employment initiative
As part of government’s effort to curb youth unemployment in Ghana, finance minister Ken Ofori-Atta has announced the introduction of a GH¢1 billion a year initiative expected to create 1 million jobs.
According to the minister, the YouStart Initiative is in partnership with financial institutions and development partners to “create an entrepreneurial economy that empowers the youth to exploit their talents and become job creators instead of job seekers”.
Challenges including access to credit and finance, regulatory and tax burden, lack of skills, etc are expected to be dealt with under the YouStart Initiative, Ofori-Atta added.
“Mr. Speaker, this understanding of the youth employment challenge, as well as extensive consultations with stakeholders including youth associations and 24 educational institutions across the country, have led to the development of the YouStart initiative which proposes to use GH¢1 billion each year to catalyze an ecosystem to create 1 million jobs and in partnership with the Finance Institutions and Development Partners, raise another 2 Billion Cedis.
“In addition, our local Banks have agreed to a package that will result in increasing their SME portfolio up to GHC 5 billion over the next 3 years,” he added.
The Minister further stated that these interventions will result in a 10 billion cedi contribution to the Private sector and YouStart over the next three years.
“Mr. Speaker, YouStart is a vehicle for supporting young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training, technical skills, and mentoring to enable them to launch and operate their own businesses,” he explained.
The theme for the 2022 budget is “building a sustainable entrepreneurial nation: fiscal consolidation and job creation”.