The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs and President of the Ghana Youth Federation, Sherif Ghali, has attributed the challenges facing youth entrepreneurship in Ghana to the absence of structured support systems, rather than a lack of interest or innovation among young people.
“It’s not difficult for the Ghanaian youth to go into the ecosystem of creating businesses, unfortunately what is difficult is that there’s no strategic support system for youth to do business,” he said.
Addressing the topic on Bullet TV’s Morning target with Bright Nana Amfoh, he noted that many young people possess innovative ideas and a natural willingness to take risks, but struggle to sustain their businesses due to weak foundations and limited institutional backing.
“The youthful entrepreneurship ecosystem is such that, young people with brilliant ideas or have the risk taking inherently in them but no matter how brilliant your business idea is or how daring you are or how risky you are if you do not have strong foundation and support it will be difficult,” he stated.
According to him, this situation has pushed many young people to seek employment in the security services, where income is more predictable.
“That’s why you’ll see most of the young people going towards the security services because it provides them with stable income, even that stability is nothing to write home about but just because at the end of the month they’re sure of getting a salary every young person rationally would want to go there,” he explained.
On the issue of funding, Mr. Ghali stressed that although capital is important, it should not discourage young people from starting small.
“Funding is necessary but you don’t need a big amount to start a business. Do not put your mind to the fact that you need a heavy capital to start,” he said.
However, he acknowledged that some business ideas require significant investment.
“We also need to understand that some businesses that the youth are coming out with are capital intensive and they need alot of money and that’s a bigger issue but my point is that whatever you have start with it,” he added.
Credit: By Mavis Fantevi
