The Chairman of Eastern, Volta and Oti Regional branch of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr. Dela Gadzanku has advised young entrepreneurs to take advantage of government incentives for young entrepreneurs.
“Government is giving young entrepreneurs some incentives, through the national entrepreneurship and innovation plan, which recently supported 3000 young entrepreneurs with loan facility and a five-year tax holiday to motivate young entrepreneurs’’ he indicated.
He said programmes, such as; planting for food and jobs, planting for export and rural development and other policies introduced by government were avenues the youth could capitalize on for good business foundation.
Mr Gadzanku made this statement, when he addressed the maiden entrepreneurship dialogue 2019 on the topic ‘’The entrepreneurs’ nightmare’’ at Abetifi.
The programme was organised by the Presbyterian University College of Ghana School of Business and Economics and aimed at nurturing and developing entrepreneurial spirits in students to expose them to business models and attributes of an entrepreneurship in the business world.
Mr Gadzanku said as young entrepreneurs, it was difficult to be assisted by the financial institutions and the loan facility from the banks come with high interest rates ranging from 25 to 30 per cent.
He said he would not encourage young entrepreneurs to go in for loans as that come with high interest rates to start up their businesses.
He encouraged them to put in their application whenever opportunities showed up, rather than going in for loans with high interest rates that could cripple their plans.
He advised upcoming entrepreneurs to seek for further information on any businesses they intended venturing into to maximize their gains.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mariseth Farms in Babiani Asawinso , Mrs Marian Ofori Twumasi, said she ventured into farming when she was at the university through a friend and since then she did not concede because of the gains.
She advised the youth not to wait on government for employment, but look for opportunities in the private sector and take advantage of them to start something and grow it to become big.
The Head of Department of Business Administration and Economics at PUCG , Dr Paul Adjei Kwakwa, , explained that the programme was intended to reform the minds of some young people with ideas and address problems for those who perceived challenges.
He expressed the hope that in the next few years, the unemployment rate among the youth would be reduced because most of them would have the desire to venture into their own businesses without waiting to work in the public sector.
