Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has been taking inputs from young entrepreneurs on how government can deepen its entrepreneurial interventions, as government prepares to present its 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament on 17th November, this year.
Youth entrepreneurship has become topical in recent weeks following public discussions about how more young Ghanaians can be supported to succeed in private business.
Mr. Oppong Nkrumah through a live virtual conversation on Sunday October 31, 2021, dubbed “#ListenUP” sought to take feedback from young entrepreneurs on how the entrepreneurial ecosystem is functioning. Feedback from the session will be channeled into government’s decision-making processes to inform its policy directions for the future.
Organized by the Ministry of Information, the live audio conversation on social networking site, Twitter is an occasional platform for deepening engagements with the Ghanaian people and at the same time take feedback that will aid government to better roll out its policies.
The Minister was joined by nearly 2,000 young entrepreneurs who freely shared their feedback and suggestions for improvement.
*Things government must consider*
The Deputy National Youth Organizer of the NDC, Edem Agbana, who is also into farming suggested that one of the means government can support young entrepreneurs in the country is through the creation of a Start Up banks that will make available funds to young entrepreneurs at low lending rates to enable them properly fund their businesses.
He bemoaned the lack of tax holidays targeted at young entrepreneurs. He said a lot of companies that enjoy tax holidays in the country are companies that enjoy economies of scale stressing that compared to these companies, young startups must be supported with tax reliefs to make them competitive.
One participant who also joined the Space bemoaned the ease of business registration in the country noting that young entrepreneurs face difficulties to get their business registered and often times get frustrated. He said though government has made frantic effort at digitizing the business registration process, he believes a lot can still be done to make it seamless.
*What to do differently as young entrepreneurs*
Preferring solutions, participants agreed that already, government has created a foundation of which young entrepreneurs should take advantage of. One of such foundation is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). They were of the view that young entrepreneurs should take advantage of the free trade area and push their products into foreign markets to increase their profit margins.
One area participants also suggested will improve young businesses a great deal is investments in Research and Development (R and D). This they said will enable young entrepreneurs to innovate and introduce new products and services to the market in order to rake in more revenue.
