Hundreds of Ghanaian job seekers and young prospective entrepreneurs on Thursday (28th October, 2021) flooded the Aliu Mahama Sports Stadium in Tamale to grab job opportunities and funding support and capacity building to explore their business ideas and existing businesses during the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) Job and Career Fair in the northern region.
The YEA Job and Career Fair is an initiative to bridge the job gap in Ghana in collaboration with private sector companies.
The Job Center was launched by the Akufo-Addo government in 2019 to provide decent and sustainable jobs for the teeming youth with formal education and skills.
The Northern Regional Director of the Youth Employment Agency, Mr Haruna Mohammed said in a media interaction said that, the fair is part of efforts to enable the government achieve its agenda of providing one million decent jobs for the Ghanaian populace.
As a result, he indicated the YEA Chief Executive together with his management team are determined to ensure the job center contributes its quota to the realization of this feet in the country.
He disclosed about 427 job vacancies were declared by over 60 various private companies assembled to conduct on the spot interviews of prospective job seekers and provide them jobs.
“We also have another facility we call the entrepreneurship pitching startup where young Ghanaian citizens are given the opportunity to put their business ideas on paper and meet face-to-face with industry experts who will evaluate these business plans and assess it to know whether it is bankable and if it is so then we provide them with startup capital or funds to expand those particular opportunities” he explained.
Sustainable business ideas and plans are expected to receive between GHS5, 000 to GHS50, 000 from the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program (NEIP).
He added, “We’re doing this not because we just want to give money to people but we’re doing this because we want to support the private sector to be able to support the government so that we will be able to get more job opportunities also in the private sector.”
Mr Haruna Mohammed stated the private sector is the engine of growth, asserting further that, engine takes in oil and this is one of the oils that we want to put through the engine and politicians will tell you that they have created the enabling environment, where is that environment? This is one of the enabling environments that we have also helped to put across so that various governments will be able strive on this to provide job opportunities to the youth.
Meanwhile, the Director of Research and Planning at the Youth Employment Agency, Nana Agya Yaw Nsia said the Tamale fair is third of series held in the Greater Accra and Koforidua in the Eastern region.
He explained part of the YEA mandate is to facilitate job creation in Ghana and there was the need to crisscross the country and engage with private sector employers.
“But I’m sure you’re all well aware that after the launch by the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia in 2019, the Covid-19 stroke the country and in terms of our general operational plans to scale-up our activities, we were not able to do that and you will realize quite a number of businesses folded up as a result of Covid-19. Thankfully, we’re in 2021, a vaccine has been found for Covid and businesses are opening up again”
The YEA Director of Research and Planning said what excites him more about this initiative is the career guidance part of the fair, highlighting the importance of pre-employment services such as preparing a competitive curriculum vitae (CV) among others.
Nana Agya Yaw Nsia indicated the employment agency will soon publish the data on the number of jobs provided as well as the career guidance service and capacity building through the intervention.
“And very soon we will be publishing the numbers that we have especially with young persons who have received jobs” he emphasized.
The YEA Job Center is a virtual platform that connects employers to job seekers to provide jobs for young Ghanaians between ages 18 and 35.
