The Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE) in collaboration with Africa Aurora Business Network (AABN) have in the past three years trained a total of 138 youth in the Western Region.

The beneficiaries made up of; 90 males and 48 females were trained in construction, interior décor, electrical installation, wielding and growing of small businesses.

Mrs Maureen Erekua Odoi, Executive Director of AABN who made this known during a ‘Business Plan Pitch’ and graduation programme for 73 trainees, said the training helped to expose the trainees to best business practices through hands-on training advisory services.

She announced that AABN would this year also certify a total of 350 young entrepreneurs from its Young Executive Business Growth Programme as part of the Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment project in Accra, Tema, Ashiaman, Takoradi and Kumasi.

The programme jointly organised by AABN, Young Executive Business Growth Programme (YEBGP) and Global Communities, was under the theme “ Empowering YIEDIE Youth: Through AABN innovative business development service".

The graduation ceremony was preceded by a ‘Business Plan Pitch’ by the graduands to enable them make known to a juror their business plans and how they would fund and operate their businesses.

The juror after listening to their business plans advised them to take their business customer relations seriously and urged them to take up moderate businesses that they could effectively manage.

Mrs Odei commended the graduands for their hard work which had enabled them to acquire the requisite skills within six months and urged them to bring to bear what they learnt by creating jobs for others.

She pointed out that training the youth in employable skills would help stabilize the nation’s economy and advised the graduands to “dream big, start small and act now.”

Mrs Odei said the construction industry was a fast-growing sector in Ghana’s economy and pledged that AABN would continue to support the youth to venture in that sector.

Mrs Veronica Niwaa Johnson, Metropolitan Director for Non-Formal Education who presided, expressed concern that the youth were only interested in white-collar jobs and that the time had come for them to move to other jobs that could earn them regular income.

She pointed out that if the youth were ready to learn skills that would create jobs for them, Ghana would be able to attain the status of ‘Ghana beyond aid’.

Mrs Johnson advised the graduands to invest, own their businesses, join associations and maintain integrity to enable them stay in business for long.

The YIEDIE Project is a five-year programme to create economic opportunities in Ghana’s construction sector for underprivileged youth in the society, while AABN is an enterprise development organisation that provides advisory services to SMEs, youth groups, business and women enterprise networks.