The Mastercard Foundation in partnership with the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) has launched a youth-empowering program known as the Business In a Box (BizBox) project in Damongo in the west Gonja Municipality of the Savannah region.
The program took place at the Daomongo Community Center on 20th February 2024 on the theme; “Empowering the Youth for a Better and Brighter Future”
The Business in a Box project is a scale up of the Young Africa Works Project being implemented in Ghana by the Ghana Enterprises Agency in partnership with Mastercard Foundation to provide youth skills development, access to start-up kits, youth social networks, institutional strengthening, policy, and regulatory support.
In a welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Enterprises Agency Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh said the BizBox project builds on the successes of the young Africa Works which was implemented from 2020 to 2022 and provided work opportunities to 94,000 youth across the country, therefore, the new intervention is designed to achieve even more by providing skills development, mentoring, and coaching to the youth to have access to markets.
She added that the project is expected to support 250,000 young women and men including the persons with Disabilities (PWDs) with a focus on supporting 125,000 of them with start-up kits to create new businesses, jobs and by extension better the livelihoods of the young people.
Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh also added that the youth are the leaders of change and innovation with the determination to see things through and they only need the chance to demonstrate their skills which the project will provide a comprehensive framework for the youth to succeed as entrepreneurs and contribute to the growth of the region and Ghana’s economy.
The CEO further said that the BizBox project gives 70 percent benefit to women and 10 percent to the PWDs.
The Savannah Regional Minister, Hon. Saeed Muhazu Jibril in addressing the gathering said it is worrying and infinitely more painful to see the percentage of the nation’s workforce unemployed still high, particularly among the youth, and that the government under the leadership of H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo recognizes the pivotal role of the youth in national development. Therefore initiatives such as the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, GEA’s Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment Program (YEEP) exemplify the commitment to fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem, providing integrated support for young businesses to grow and succeed.
The Hon. Minister mentioned that the overreaching goal of the project is to instill an entrepreneurial mindset and attitude through capacity development, mentorship, coaching, access to markets, regulatory support, and start-up kits, therefore, the youth should take a keen interest in capacity building to establish themselves in profit business making and that no one will be left out through the support of the government of the Republic.
Madam Adam Christy Afisha, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Christy’s Favoured Clothing in Damongo of the west Gonja municipality, a beneficiary of the transformative power of the GEA and Master Card Foundation Young Africa project said the Young Africa Project provides a unique opportunity to turn vision into a reality and she has the privilege to train 14 apprentices with a grant of ghc20,000 which helped her to expand her business.
She added that the project introduced her to a series of trainings including Kaizen, financial literacy, small business management, and e-commerce.
She thanked the Ghana Enterprises Agency GEA’s and Master Card Foundation for the support and commitment and entreated the youth to take advantage of the Business in a Box project.
