The Minister of Business Development, Ibrahim Awal, says his Ministry has created over twenty thousand jobs since its inception in 2017.
Speaking to Citi News in London at the UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce Investment Summit, the Minister said his ministry is confident that it would be responsible for the creation of about 230,000 direct jobs by 2020.
Alhaji Ibrahim Awal said his Ministry had already facilitated the creation of over 20, 000 jobs in its 1st year, and is on course to achieving the 230,000 jobs target set for it by the President.
“Everything we do is aimed at creating jobs…We need to create over 230,000 jobs from my Ministry alone for the next two years to make sure we achieve the President’s vision of making Ghana business friendly and helping young people to grow and own businesses. Last year [2017] alone, we had over 20,000 done and as we support young businesses to expand, they then create the jobs and support young people.”
The Minister said government has identified agriculture, agribusiness and information communication technology (ICT), as “Key Enablers” that had the potential and capacity to absorb labour and also bring about Ghana’s economic transformation.
“Agriculture and agribusiness are key enablers. We think that if we have to get a lot of investments in these areas, we have a lot of young people who have ideas in that.”
Alhaji Awal said government had stabilized the macro-economic environment and was on course to creating competitive Ghanaian businesses and making Ghana the most business friendly country in Africa.
“The macro economic fundamentals have improved significantly over the last 15 months, and I think this has set the stage for businesses to grow and our target of making young businesses grow and become at least Africa -wide competitive is on course.”
“As at now, we have trained over 7,000 young entrepreneurs and between 400 and 1,000 of them are going to be supported with funds to grow. The President’s vision of making Ghana the most business friendly country in Africa is on course and I want to urge British entrepreneurs to partner with their Ghanaian counterparts.”
Golden Exotics CEO on agriculture
Meanwhile, a Ghanaian Fruits exporting company has endorsed government’s focus on Agriculture as the catalyst for job creation and scalability.
Deputy CEO of Golden Exotics, George Kporye, described government’s plans for agriculture as ambitious but doable, noting that the success of companies like Golden Exotics provides an example of how private sector firms can successfully take advantage of opportunities within the agricultural sector.
“The programmes are very ambitious but they are doable. It takes a lot of work and we have to start doing the work now. Our company provides the example of what can be done. We take a whole sugar plantation and turn it into a business which generates over 40 million euros a year and employs close to 3,000 people in a short period of time. It is possible. There are such opportunities all over the country. It is only a matter of getting down to do the job” he said.