The Global Communities (GC), an international non-governmental organization (NGO) in Ghana, has supported 20 youth with startup grants of 5,000 Ghana cedis to set up their own businesses.

This is under the Youth Inclusive Entrepreneurial Development Initiative for Employment (YIEDIE), a programme dubbed: “Youth Construction Enterprise Grant” and awarded on competitive bases to the youth.

The grant is for youth with innovative business ideas within the construction value chain with the ages of beneficiaries ranging from 17 to 24 years.

It was designed to give opportunities to the disadvantaged youth to build-up viable and sustainable businesses within the construction sector, such as retailing of construction materials, welding, carpentry, electrical, and blocks laying.

Mr. Ebenezer Kye-Mensah, acting Director of the YIEDIE project, addressing the recipients of the grant at a ceremony in Accra, said the Global Communities was implementing the project with other partners.

They are the MasterCard Foundation, Opportunities Industrialization Centre (CIC), Youth Empowerment Synergy (YES), African Aurora Business Network (AABN), HFC Boafo, and Artisans Association of Ghana (AAG).

Mr. Kye-Mensah said the YIEDIE programme is a five-year project designed to create economic opportunities in the country’s construction sector to reach out to at least 23,700 of the youth with training in technical and entrepreneurship skills leading to employment in Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ashaiman and Tema.

He noted that the construction sector offers real possibilities for Ghana’s young people, adding that; “regulatory, financial and market constraints pose some limitations to the opportunities created by the sector’s growth.”

“It is against this background that YIEDIE had instituted this small startup grants to encourage our young people to benefit from opportunities in the construction sector,” he said.

Mr. Kye-Mensah said it was also to provide chances to the youth to access simple tool kits whilst giving them coaching and mentoring for sustainable growth of the businesses.

The acting Director of GC said the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) expects the construction sector to add 700,000 new jobs between 2010 and 2020.