I have for the past 11years not worked in the public sector. Since I completed school in 2009, I have never joined any public service. Also, I spent close to three months working as a district director in a private sector agric project which I did alongside my national service and close to six months as a teacher just after my national service. With the above you will notice so far I have spent over 10years as an entrepreneur.
I have noticed that Ghana as a country has no ecosystem to encourage entrepreneurship and or help start-ups so Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta’s call for graduates to venture into entrepreneurship is talk out of frustration knowing they have failed the youth. Governments have no or little plans to support young entrepreneurs unless you have a party card to show or well connected to a big man in the ruling governments.
Governments’ pro-startup policies such as the Youth in Agriculture, Youth Enterprise Support of the NDC and National Enterprise Innovation Programme of the NPP are all cosmetics largely targeted at given money to their party members as compensation for their loyalty and not necessarily to young entrepreneurs who actually have what it takes to create jobs to employ others. There are no doubt also that some beneficiaries have made huge impacts but the figures government publish in their books as compare to the realities on the ground are nothing but disappointing.
I have two examples in 2009 with Youth in Agriculture programme where at the time, I was into farming and despite what I was doing before applying for support from the programme, not even a bottle of herbicide was used to support me – not even when business plan and lease documents of my farming land were demanded and duly submitted together with my application. On the day my colleagues were at the graduation hall at KNUST, I was at the Deputy Agric Minister, Hon. Effah’s office presenting and defending my business plan.
The same situation with the Youth Enterprise Support in 2013-14 – not even GHc1 was granted to support my business when I applied when infact I was even tasked by one of the officers to developer the institutions website without pay. For NPP’s, I don’t even have to attempt because my name alone disqualifies me.
Though applying for funding does not automatically makes you a qualified candidate to be supported, at least there are some key indicators that your applications were looked at before you did not meet the criteria.
In the face of all these government department’s rejections are the private sector financial institutions which we all know that they are established not to help the poor out of their poverty, but for the rich to keep and manage their riches will not give loan or financial support to any start-up. But struggle to grow as a business with fact funds in your account and see, the banks will start chasing you to come for a loan.
I have made several attempts to apply for a loan from many microfinance, and saving and loan companies over the years but none was ever successful. Some will tell you to make a security deposit, you comply but they will later decline your applications and you will not even get those application fees back.
Others will just disqualify you on the basis that your office is not beautiful as if the beauty of your office is what will pay back the loans. This made me understood why some financial institutions are defrauded….
Typical of what is going on is the decision by most saving and loan companies and microfinance companies not to give loan to service provider such as ICT companies, law firms among others. They will tell you that they only give loan to businesses that are into “buying and selling” which have goods in their shops. The question I keep asking them is who should produce for who to come buy and sell?
Tell a financial institution that you are into software, mobile app, website development and that you need a loan, without even checking your books, they will tell you they don’t give loans to such businesses and you can only be given if you sell IT products like computers meanwhile these companies use software, mobile apps and own websites for their businesses but think those service providers have no verifiable viability to be supported. These financial institutions use the services of lawyers but don’t give loans to law firms.
These situations are contributing largely to Ghana’s employment situation as small services providing businesses that have the ability and capacity to grow and expand are unable to do so because of lack of such supports. They are unable to pay their bills, rents and staff salaries leading to their total collapse. Until a door opens for a big contract, they will only be doing from hand to month business.
No scheme to help young businesses pay for huge rent advance (two years advance) among others meanwhile many Ghanaian clients are equally not ready to do serious business with you online – they want want to come to your office.
The massive unemployment situation which poses serious national security concerns is self-inflated and we’ll be institutionalized by the government.
Just think about how many jobs can be created with the money being spent on President Akufo-Addo’s travel alone which keeps reoccurring frequently like the way we breathe as humans.
We cannot grow and develop as a country with these kind of self inflicted pains.
By: Korsi Senyo
Journalist and Entrepreneur
talktosenyo@gmail.com
Accra-Ghana