Bolgatanga Central Member of Parliament, Isaac Adongo has said the government is quizzing Ghanaians in order to generate money to pay for interest on loans they have acquired.
He described the 2022 budget statement presented to Parliament by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta on Wednesday November 17 that, as a killer budget.
“This is a killer budget. When people are in a difficult situation like Covid has done the last thing they will want is for you to break their back. Unfortunately, you are not breaking their backs to build roads, you are not breaking their backs to build schools, you are not breaking their backs to develop this country. You are breaking the back to go and pay for interest on loans you have taken,” he told TV3.
For his part, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor has said that the Finance Minister outlined an ambitious, comprehensive plan to boost youth entrepreneurship in the country.
“The Finance Minister announced a very robust, ambitious comprehensive interventions to unleash entrepreneurship in our country. The You Start programme where he is going to spent a billion Ghana cedis a year as counterpart funding alongside commercial banks who are going to bring funding to ensure we give capital Ghanaians youths to be able to create their own.”
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Mr Ken Ofori Atta said during the budget presentation that “The understanding of the youth employment challenge, as well as extensive consultations with stakeholders including youth associations and educational institutions across the country, have led to the development of the YouStart initiative which proposes to use GH¢1 billion each year to catalyze an ecosystem to create 1 million jobs and in partnership with the Finance Institutions and Development Partners, raise another 2 Billion Cedis.
“In addition, our local Banks have agreed to a package that will result in increasing their SME portfolio up to GHC 5 billion over the next 3 years.
“This, Mr. Speaker results in an unprecedented historic 10 Bn Cedis commitment to the private sector and YouStart over the next 3 years.”
He added “Mr. Speaker, YouStart is a vehicle for supporting young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training, technical skills and mentoring to enable them launch and operate their own businesses.
“Mr. Speaker, the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), and partner financial institutions, will serve as the implementing arms of YouStart.
“Entrepreneurs will be able to apply for support through a dedicated YouStart online portal.
“NEIP will also engage our Faith-Based Organisations as partners for the delivery of essential artisanal skills, business competitions, and feasibility studies and introduction to financing institutions with a commitment of up to 10% of GOG contribution to the YouStart Programme.”
Source: 3news.com
