By Rukayatu Musah
Government is partnering with a consortium of nine banks to provide credit to existing youth-led Companies and, in the process, create one million jobs in the next three years. Under the commercial programme of the YouStart initiative, the banks will provide support for existing youth-led businesses with between GH¢100,000 working capital and GH¢500,000 for those in need of capital expenditure. Interest rate will not be more than 10%.
President of the Ghana Association of Bankers, John Awuah listed the participating banks as GCB Bank Ltd., Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), Access Bank, Absa Bank, FBN Bank, ADB, Fidelity Bank, Ecobank and Bank of Africa.
He was confident that with time, more banks would come on board. He said the community of banks are aware of the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs in accessing credit, and so the scheme aimed at making lending conditions less stringent to enable businesses to scale up and create jobs.
The banking sector is convinced that the government wants to build an entrepreneurial nation through youth entrepreneurship.
Listing the conditions for accessing the scheme, Mr. Awuah said ”it was open to existing businesses whose prime movers were youths between ages 18 and 40”.
”They will also have to show that their businesses, when supported, will be profitable and create youth employment”.
He said YouStart will not fund any business that is into buying and selling because it wants to create import-dependent enterprises.
He said through the commercial module of the YouStart programme, young people with business ideas or those who had started businesses would be trained by professionals at the Banking College, Chartered Institute of Bankers and other institutions.
Beneficiaries who successfully graduate from the training will be assisted to obtain product certification and quality assurance for their products and services to ensure that their businesses conform to standards, regulations, and the laws of their industry. Entrepreneurs will be trained, supported with business development services, and funded over the next three years.
On how interested applications can access the fund, Mr. Awuah said a website will soon be launched.
All potential applicants will fill out the form and Successful applicants can access funding “within a short period after applying”.
The YouStart commercial programme will take off in the latter part of June.
