The Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) is to assist businesses established under the ‘One District, One Factory’ (1D1F) to recruit qualified graduates required to run the businesses successfully.

Mr Robert Ahomka-Lindsay, Deputy Minister, said preparations were underway to post about 13,000 graduates selected under the Enterprise Ghana module of the Nation Builders’ Corps (NABCO) to support the efficient and successful operations of these enterprises across the country.

Speaking at an Enterprise Ghana meeting in Kumasi, he said the aim was to be able to “integrate the graduates” into most of the businesses of these companies, to help tackle some of the operational challenges facing small and medium-scale enterprises.

The meeting brought together more than 200 companies, made up of start-ups, existing and rejuvenated ones, who have expressed interest to enrol onto the Enterprise Ghana project.

‘Enterprise Ghana: Role of private companies, association, agencies and development partners’ was the theme for the meeting. Mr Ahomka-Lindsay stressed the need for private companies to assist the government to address the key challenge of graduate unemployment in the country.

He said as a requirement of the module, interested companies must register with the NaBCo as employment provider, use NaBCo as a primary reference for sourcing working staff and be able to recruit not less than 10 graduate trainees.

The Deputy Minister said the employed graduates would receive a 12-week hands-on training to equip them to integrate properly into the business.

On the issue of allowances for the employed graduates, he said, the government was going to pay for the first 18 months of the three-year period while the beneficiary companies took up the rest of the period.

Mr Ahomka-Lindsay said it was the belief of the ministry that any subsequent uptake of these graduates in the businesses “will not be a hurdle for the companies since they have worked with them and know their strength and capabilities”.

He pointed out that the ministry would from June 15 to July 14, this year sign a memorandum of understanding with the companies to select the graduates they need to start work on August.