According to the Chief Executive of the Plan, John Kumah, the NEIP will commission 29 factories in February as part of the government’s flagship one-district, one-factory programme.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Tywp6LLluQq8gu0MHYLpDOPrJJSot0x0″]“We are supposed to help create industrial subcontracting arrangements for young people who want to do business and succeed. We have designed a programme we call the NEIP industrialization project and that will feed into the one-district, one-factory agenda of government. At the moment, we are about to commission about 29 factories, in partnership with Exim Bank Ghana and the Venture Capital Fund. We have very critical businesses and factories lined up,” he said on Eyewitness News on Friday.

“By February, we are doing this in partnership with some Indian partners Exim and Venture Capital. What we are doing is to establish these factories and get private young people that we are training.”

John Kumah noted that, the NEIP had received applications from over 7, 000 startups for financial and technical support from the government.

He stated that some of those businesses which aren’t approved for support from the Plan, but who align with the factories could be engaged to run the factories with the view of taking over fully in the next five years.

“Those who won’t even receive funding in the 7, 000 applications, some of them whose businesses fall in line with these factories, can be engaged to become the owners. So you run to pay back those investments into Exim Bank or the Venture Capital Fund and then you become the eventual owners of those factories after five to seven years,” he said.

‘20, 000 indirect jobs’

The project, which is being funded by the Exim Bank and the Venture Capital Fund is being undertaken in collaboration with India who are responsible for the construction of the factories.

John Kumah also indicated that, aside from the 5, 000 jobs that would be created directly from the commissioning of these factories, over 20, 000 people were expected to be employed indirectly as well.

“We are hoping to create about 5, 000 jobs out of these 29 factories. The Indians are helping to build and bring the machinery. Exim Bank, Venture Capital Fund and NEIP will be paying for it, and then the private young businesses that we are bringing up, will run it, pay for it and become eventual owners,” he said.

“That will also help create a number of jobs. We can create about 20, 000 indirect jobs from the NEIP Industrialization project alone. All this is this year, 2018.”

NEIP gets funding boost

The NEIP received a major boost last July when President Nana Akufo-Addo announced that government has set up a 100 million dollar package to fund the plan.

Outlining four main challenges to be solved by the NEIP, the president stated at the time that “the overall objective of this plan is to stimulate private sector growth to accelerate job creation and to provide entrepreneurial Ghanaian youth with a critical alternative to salaried appointment.”

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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post NEIP targets 5, 000 jobs from Industrialisation Project appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The plan is an initiative of the Akufo-Addo government which is aimed at supporting young entrepreneurs grow their businesses.

Speaking at the launch of the plan in Accra on Thursday, the President announced a $10 million seed capital for the fund.

Akufo-Addo said he is confident the project will help address the major unemployment issue in the country.

“Let me introduce you to the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan. This is the flagship initiative which will be the primary vehicle for providing an integrated national support for startups and small businesses. Despite the severe constraints of our public finances, which have resulted from years of mismanagement and corruption, Government has contributed US$10 million as seed money for the Plan. It is the intention that this seed money should be leveraged to raise money from private sources and public organizations to the tune of US$100 million to fund its programmes,” he added.

He observed the greatest problem of Ghana is widespread unemployment and lack of jobs.

“Every year, more young people join in the dispiriting search for jobs. I have come face to face with the desperation that is engendered by the lack of jobs. I have spoken about it often. I have even come to accept that it is this lack of jobs that has led to the phenomenon of so many people looking to government for jobs, which appears to be dampening our traditional entrepreneurial spirit,” he added.

The President however noted that the fact that unemployment is a worldwide phenomenon does not make Ghana’s “national and personal situation any easier to endure.”

“It does not lessen the heartbreak of parents who watch their children go through the frustration of joblessness year after dispiriting year. In 2015, some 4,500 young Ghanaians arrived in Italy, after undertaking the horrendous Mediterranean crossing that we all see on television. I am determined that we change the economic conditions in our country for the better, to ensure that young people see it as a place of opportunities, instead of the place from which they flee at the peril of their lives. We need to do all within our power to create an entrepreneurial climate, to enable our young people come up with creative ideas that can be developed into businesses,” he added.

Akufo-Addo said that NEIP will enable new businesses to emerge and give them the space to grow by receiving “financing and business development services, to secure markets during the critical formative years, and to tap into a wide supply chain and network during their growth years, helping to create jobs at a widely distributed, national level.”

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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