The Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE) project has graduated 292 youths who want to pursuetheir trade in the construction sector.

The YIEDIE project creates economic opportunities for youths between the ages 17-24 in Ghana’s construction sector by training young women and men in technical construction skills and helping youth to grow and start small businesses.

The project covers subsectors in the construction sector such as building and construction, painting, electricals, decorations, among others.

Speaking to the B&FT at the graduation ceremony in Accra, Maureen ErekuaOdoi, Executive Director of the African Aurora Business Network (AABN), anenterprise development organization which provides business advisory services to SMEs, said her outfit chose to train youth in construction because of the potential that exist in the sector.

“Global Communities, one of the key firms in this consortium, did a value chain study and it revealed that there are skills gap in the construction industry. The study also found out that there are opportunities in the sector. So based on that study we identified about 18 areas in the value chain that we can help train the youth so that they can start their own business.

As a developing economy, we have infrastructure gap and we believe that young people who have the vocational skills can be trained so they can take advantage of this opportunity,” Mrs. Odoi said.

As part of the package of the YIEDIE project, the top 20 successful trainees will be supported with a minimum of US$1000 eachand also be helped with their business registration.

AABN, through the Young Executive Business Growth Program (YEBGP), also organizes a post-assessment training programme for the graduates, known also as ‘Constructpreneurs’ every month to ascertain their progress and help address any challenges they are facing in their entrepreneurial journey.

This year, over 700 young entrepreneurs expressed interest in the YEBGP from Accra, Tema, Ashaiman and Takoradi.

Out of this number, a total of 292 were selected to enroll in the YEBGP. The selected young entrepreneurs received a six-month intensive business advisory and hands-on certification programmes in business planning and pitching; introduction to ICT and business mentoring.

Seventy-nine of the graduates came from Accra, 57from Tema,72from Ashaiman, and 49 from Takoradi.

AABN is a member of the YIEDIE consortium and led by Global Communities and in partnership with Youth Empowerment Synergy Ghana (YES-Ghana), HFC-Boafo, Artisans Association of Ghana (AAG) and Opportunities Industrialization Centre Ghana (OICG).