Govt scaling up support for private sector : President Mahama declares
The President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, says the government is scaling up support to the private sector to enable it expand to provide jobs for the teeming youth who graduate every year.
Advertisement
He indicated that it was impossible for the state to absorb the about 100,000 people graduating from the tertiary institutions every year, and therefore, the focus was to extend more support to the private sector to provide the needed jobs for the graduates.
Speaking at an entrepreneurship forum organised by the Mara Group for young people on the sidelines of the India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi yesterday, the President said the government was also empowering young graduates to take their destinies into their own hands instead of looking up to the government for employment.
He said a lot had been done in the past, and a lot more was being done currently to boost young entrepreneurship and vocational training.
Mara Group
The Mara Group is a pan-African multi-sector business with extensive experience in the African and international markets.
Its Chief Executive Officer, 33-year-old Ashish J. Thakkar, who dropped out of school at the age of 15, is currently Africa's youngest billionaire.
In September 2014, the government of Ghana, in collaboration with the Mara Foundation, launched a new online mentoring network to enable, empower and inspire entrepreneurs in Ghana to achieve more laurels.
The Mara Mentorship, as the programme is called, is an online interactive initiative that connects ambitious young entrepreneurs with successful and experienced business leaders, and encourages the sharing of ideas and knowledge among Africa’s most promising entrepreneurs, while inspiring a collaborative approach to business start-up and growth.
State monopoly
President Mahama said the era of state-dominated economy was gone and the private sector was now the driver of the economy.
It was against that background that the government continued to partner the private sector in various endeavours.
President Mahama said although the oil and gas sector had opened many job avenues for Ghanaians, one of the difficulties was how to find people to work in the skilled industry.
To overcome the challenge, a system had been put in place to empower young people to bid and compete for jobs in the sector, he added.
Partnership
The President said India had been a great partner of Africa and Ghana, particularly, looked forward to partnering the Asian country to build a robust infrastructure.
He cited the energy sector as one area where Africa had a deficit.
"Across Africa, economies have grown so fast that the demand for power is outstripping supply and so what we are doing in Ghana is to restructure the power sector like we did to the telecommunications sector." he said.
He explained that allowing the private sector into downstream distribution would ensure better collection of revenue and ensure better customer service.
Mara CEO
Mr Thakkar commended Ghana for its economic growth and said his company was proud to join in moving the success story forward.
He also said the company looked forward to partnering African governments to create 17 million jobs in the next five years.
