The Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration (GGC) has organised a two-day capacity building workshop on entrepreneurship and financial training for young artisans in the Bono region. This is part of the GGC’s measures to build the resilience and business strength of artisans under its “Community Works Initiative”.

The intervention’s objective is to train returning migrants and unemployed youth in the Bono Region, in readily available demand-driven services areas like Tiling, Masonry, plumbing, 3D Epoxy, tailoring, dressmaking, hairdressing, and cosmetology, and provide them with start-up support so they can engage in entrepreneurial ventures or seek employment.

The Community Works rejuvenation training will help to return migrants re-establish themselves in their communities with a focus on sustainable employment and opportunities for unemployed youth, to significantly curb irregular migration. To achieve this objective, the project targets communities with a high propensity for irregular migration in Ghana.

Head of the Ghanaian-German Centre, Benjamin Woesten, remarked that “the lack of access to employment opportunities among Ghanaian youth is widely cited as a major contributing factor to irregular migration. The need to provide alternative livelihoods for returning migrants, prospective migrants and unemployed youth has become more urgent. Alternative economic activities for these people will provide a means of survival for them to dissuade them from resorting to irregular migration,”

“The need for community services-oriented training with the aim of rejuvenating the local economies through employment promotion to curbing irregular migration and youth unemployment among communities in the Bono Region stems from the prospect of the identified works areas being economically viable services and thus a means of livelihood for these communities.”

The training brought together 40 young artisans drawn from Nsuatre, Fiapre, Chiraa, Kwasibourkrom and Odumasi). Topics covered included Marketing vocational/technical businesses; Setting Financial Goals; Managing Money Wisely and Avoiding Debt; Understanding Savings; Managing Risks in vocational/technical skills businesses; Telephone Etiquette; Workplace Etiquette; and Customer Care.

The Ghanaian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Reintegration is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Ghana in collaboration with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MELR).