Wednesday, 11th February, 2026
Hon Stephen Amoah
Nhyiaeso
Mr Speaker, it is a pleasure to have this opportunity to present a Statement on another critical national issue, which is the impact of entrepreneurship on the global economy, and a need to consider that as a course in both Ghana’s junior high school and senior high school academic curricula.
Mr Speaker, entrepreneurship is the ability to set up a new business venture and develop one’s own business with the intention of making profit instead of rely on ones already created by another individual or corporate body.
Mr Speaker, there are a number of compelling reasons for the above proposition to be accorded the needed national and Executive attention. Entrepreneurship has played a remarkable role and indeed become an integral part of the global economy. It has impacted the economy by creating jobs, stimulating economic stability, and reducing poverty in the world. The job market in Ghana, Mr Speaker, is congested, leaving most of the youth in an undesirable employment space. The unemployment rate in Ghana has tremendously contributed to most of the antisocial behaviours in Ghana, including insecurity, robbery, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases.
Mr Speaker, the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research’ (ISSER) data indicate that only about 10 per cent of Ghanaian graduates secure employment within a year of graduation. Besides, the Statistical Service indicates that graduate job-hunting duration is about five years. What it means is that it takes about five years for them to even get regular jobs. In Ghana, according to the Ghana Education Sector Report, about 109,874 graduates from the university education system annually. What it means is that only about 10,000 of this number get employed annually, leaving about an estimated figure of 100,000 unemployed graduates.
Mr Speaker, the way to go all over the world is entrepreneurship as the private sector is the engine of global socioeconomic growth. It was entrepreneurs who replaced home kerosene lamps with brighter and cleaner-burning gas in the middle to late 1800s. Those ones also were displaced by a better electric light system and later came fluorescent lighting. Entrepreneurs invent a lot of new technologies, computers, the World Wide Web, the spreadsheet, and the new improved drug technologies.
Mr Speaker, entrepreneurship is the key to dealing comprehensively with the graduate unemployment in Ghana. A lot of our talents, out of frustration, engage in a lot of illicit socioeconomic ventures and even leave the shores of Ghana in search of greener pastures. These factors have affected Ghana’s skill labour and are highly dysfunctional to the performance of our Republic. The unemployment situation has a degree of integration when it comes to insecurity and an unstable economy.
A developing economy such as Ghana, which has been endowed with a wide range of commercially viable raw materials and natural resources offer an entrepreneurial opportunity for job creation. There are, however, many setbacks to our quest to create a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in Ghana as a substitution or supplement policy. We have a very weak entrepreneurial ecosystem as a country. The interactions among the relevant stakeholders in the entrepreneurial ecosystem lack not only the requisite structural and functional capacity, but also the effectiveness to augment the employment capacity of Ghana.
Mr Speaker, there are a number of proposed solutions, including redefining our corporate focus as a country, governments be intentional about entrepreneurship in its major policy decisions, and realigning and harmonising the key stakeholders in the ecosystem. Apart from creating jobs, boosting Ghana’s economy, and diminishing Government’s burden, entrepreneurship, if well integrated, will go a long way to answer most of our economic questions as a sovereignty.
Additionally, it will play an illustrative role in Ghana’s import-driven agenda and realisation. The most needed solution emphasised in this Statement is the advocacy for the inclusion of “Entrepreneurship” as a course in the junior high school academic curriculum and as elective in the senior high school academic curriculum.
Mr Speaker, permit me to repeat this extract, just because it forms the integral part of my Statement. The most needed solution emphasised in this Statement is the advocacy for the inclusion of “Entrepreneurship” as a core course in the junior high school academic curriculum and as elective course in the senior high school academic curriculum. I am accordingly proposing that the relevant stakeholder bodies, particularly the Ministry of Education, take the needed steps to expedite action on the inclusion of entrepreneurship in our JHS and SHS academic curriculum. This will increase the entrepreneurship appetite of our youth to start and develop their own businesses.
Mr Speaker, I thank you for honouring me with this great opportunity. Thank you very much.
Hon Abdul Aziz Fatahiya
Savelugu
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement ably made by Dr Stephen Amoah, Member of Parliament for the Nhyiaeso Constituency.
It is true that unemployment in Ghana is a challenge; a challenge that has to be addressed by everybody. It is also true that it is important that we make our learners develop skills that will help them in the future, rather than always depending on Government for employment.
Mr Speaker, as you said, entrepreneurship is the ability to set up a new business venture and develop one’s own business. But where I have a small challenge is the introduction of entrepreneurship at the basic education level. Already, we have so many subjects studied at the basic education level, which for some of us is even too much. What is important at the basic level is foundational learning. How do we make sure that the learner at the basic level is able to do very well, especially in reading and writing? When we go to a number of public basic schools now, the ability to read fluently is not there and to even write is a challenge, which I know the Ministry of Education is seriously addressing. So, for basic schools, we need to allow them to make sure that they lay the foundation for education of our children. Let us give them that foundational learning so that they can read and write and understand why they are in school.
A few years ago, we had the education reform programme where technical and vocational studies or education was introduced into our basic education system. That was when we introduced the junior high school programme. Tools were supplied to our schools so that students could learn some skills at the basic level.
Unfortunately, that was not followed to the letter. So, what has happened is that we cannot even find those tools that were supplied to all the junior high schools in those days, and the programme did not go further. It was then that even some learned how to handle basic carpentry tools. If we had continued with that, I am sure that it would have impacted them very much, because some learners at that time could even make chairs and tables in the basic school. But unfortunately, that programme was not followed vigorously.
Mr Speaker, if we go to our senior high schools, many of them offer business subjects. To make it a complete core subject is where I have my problem. We can incorporate it into social studies. Because if we go to the senior high schools, so many subjects are being studied there; three or four core subjects then three or four elective subjects. So, if we burden them with so many subjects — now that their performances are giving us a headache, we need to look at it critically. This is so that in reviewing the curriculum as we are doing now, this can be incorporated in Social Studies as a core subject, so that the students can be taught entrepreneurship.
Also, when we get to the tertiary level, we realise that a number of graduates that are being produced these days are not given any skills which they can develop. So, it is important that we also draw the attention of the university authorities that they should not only produce graduates who are not selfemployable. Because once they leave the universities, they expect government to employ them, and that is creating a problem for the nation.
So, it is important that the universities, especially the technical universities, produce graduates who can be entrepreneurs in the future. With Government projects that are in the pipeline or being rolled out, it is important that the universities and technical institutes also take advantage of this and make sure that they develop skills in Ghanaian learners, so that they can be their own employers.
Mr Speaker, on that note, I thank you very much for the opportunity.
Hon Mohammed Amin Adam
Karaga
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
I would like to, first of all, commend Hon Stephen Amoah, my former Deputy Minister, for this Statement. The issue of entrepreneurship is critical for the growth of our economy and for the overall development of our country. Entrepreneurship drives economies, and Ghana’s economy is no exception. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are critical because they contribute about 70 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our country. Ninety two per cent of all businesses registered in Ghana are SMEs. As far as job creation is concerned, they also contribute about 80 per cent of jobs in the country.
Now, the SMEs cannot succeed if they do not have the entrepreneurial spirit as well as the skills required to innovate and to provide leadership to the small businesses. This is why the Statement is so important; trying to address this gap of lack of entrepreneurial skills at the basic level of our education. It is important because when we start giving the young ones the skills, the entrepreneurial spirit and endowment, they can grow to become successful entrepreneurs in the country. So, I support this Statement because I think that starting the solution at the basic level is so critical.
Mr Speaker, apart from this, I also think that we must begin to address this issue also among the existing SMEs, as most of the SMEs are not successful because they do not have those skills and training. Apart from capital constraints, the other key constraint is the entrepreneurial skills. So apart from the basic schools, existing SMEs also need that support.
So, I recommend that we set up SME clinics across the country in communities, districts and regions, so that SMEs can walk into these clinics to get entrepreneurial skills, training and guidance on where they can get capital and how they can transform their businesses. This is so that they can become successful to continue to create jobs for our country and to continue to contribute to the GDP of our country.
Mr Speaker, this Statement really needs to be looked at seriously. The last time we passed the 24-Hour Economy Authority Bill, 2025, I wanted to see emphasis on providing entrepreneurial skills to SMEs. I hope that the Authority, once established, will give attention to the issue of providing entrepreneurial training and skills to SMEs who are the bedrock of our economy. This would enable them to double their profits, expand their businesses, and create jobs for the youth in particular.
Graduates, especially those that are coming out of our universities and our technical schools need that opportunity to be absorbed, to apply the training and technical skills they have acquired in schools. But if we do not have that opportunity or platform, we will continue to read petitions by unemployed graduates associations in our country, which really does not augur well for us. We all agree that unemployment is a security threat and all efforts must be made to address the issue of unemployment. But more so, when individuals are supported to set up their own businesses, to realise the entrepreneurial ingenuity of these young ones, it will go a long way to complement what Government is doing and thereby help us address the security threat which unemployment is posing to our country.
I thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to this Statement.
Hon Samuel Awuku
Akuapim North
Thank you Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, I rise to add my voice to the maker of the Statement and the very proposal that he has put forward.
Mr Speaker, we are seeking to solve a problem which is youth unemployment. On the African continent today, the biggest problem we are facing is unemployment. Whereas the government sector is choked, I believe that the most viable place to look at is the private sector. The private sector cannot also function when the entrepreneurial aspect is not there. I believe that inculcating in our kids and young learners right from the basic education level through the senior high school with a core in entrepreneurship and an elective in entrepreneurship will help develop their minds and tune them towards the problem that we seek to solve.
Mr Speaker, even the maker of the Statement was charitable with some of the figures. For instance, if we are talking about almost 110,000 young people graduating from university education system and 10,000 of them get to secure jobs annually; we have not even added that of the polytechnics and the other tertiary institutions. This means we are talking about close to 150,000 young people a year, passing out of our tertiary system and looking out for jobs. The public sector cannot absorb these huge numbers that we are talking about.
Again, in moving beyond even what the maker of the Statement did put across, it is a very serious matter even within the government sector when it comes to entrepreneurship. We can have somebody applying for some support, for example, at the Youth Employment Agency (YEA). This person secures that support in the area of entrepreneurship, moves to the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), secures another funding or support in the area of entrepreneurship.
Because of the lack of checks and balances, we can have the same person or entity moving towards Government. Before we realise, one individual might even secure three different avenues or opportunities and there is nobody even tracking it. I strongly believe that one, starting from the base of inculcating in our young learners that mindset—because business starts from conception. Once they have the mindset, how to develop it becomes the next step to take. I believe that at the basic level, we can begin to fine-tune some of these ideas and by the time that they get to the senior high school, they become much more interested in the entrepreneurship sector.
Mr Speaker, the way we even teach some of our courses in our schools is a major impediment in young people even loving these courses. Very few Ghanaians get to love French at the basic level. This is because of even how it is taught and the mode of instructions that it comes through. Another one is that of Mathematics. So, if one is going to even treat entrepreneurship in our local parlance as ɔkɔtɔn adeɛ then the people will not even love it. They will not even participate fully in it. But when we make it a policy, where we are building future captains of industry and employers right from the younger generation, I believe that it will set the tone for us to considerably reduce the issue of unemployment. So, I am fortified in my belief that starting from the basic level and fine tuning the minds of these young learners, taking them through the mile, through the senior high school, by the time they get to the universities and the tertiary level, it would be us building right from the beginning the future Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and the big boys in the business world. On this note, I support wholeheartedly the Statement put forward by the maker of the Statement.
Let me also commend the maker of the Statement who is one of the topmost economists and financial people that we have in our country.Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Hon Ayariga Mahama
Bawku Central
Mr Speaker, I think we need to commend the maker of the Statement for bringing up an important matter like this for us as legislators to ruminate over and more importantly, proffer some solutions. I do agree that entrepreneurship is a problem.
Entrepreneurial skills is a problem. But I think that there is something more fundamental than just entrepreneurial skills. Indeed, many of our people are entrepreneurial in their orientation. They do work hard to try and build businesses. The troubles that our market women go through, travelling across the country to save and buy off commodities from our farmers, the challenges they have hauling their commodities to the market centres and how to preserve the commodities and all that, demonstrate resilience in terms of the entrepreneurial spirit of our people.
So, I do not entirely agree that the problem of our people is entrepreneurship. There are young graduates of universities who have made efforts to set up businesses. But the problem is that, there are fundamental bottlenecks that we at policy level and in legislating must deal with. I have said this time and time again.
How will our Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) survive when we have opened our borders, so that SMEs from Asia and some other parts of the world to produce at cheaper cost and come and compete with them? It is not possible. If our SME entrepreneurs have to pay the amount that they pay for energy, how are they going to compete? If they are going to pay the interest rates that they used to pay for loans, how are they going to compete? If they are going to use the inadequate transport infrastructure that we have, how are they going to thrive? So yes, entrepreneurship is a problem, but there are things more fundamental that we as a people must be addressing.
I had a conversation with a steel manufacturer yesterday. He has increased the capacity of his steel manufacturing plant, yet we allow other people to import steel as well. Now, his capacity is underutilised, working at less than 30 per cent, and there is unemployment. It means that if we got him working at 90 per cent, the extra 70 per cent will also require additional hands and all these young people who are graduating from universities will be able to also get employment.
As policy makers, let us begin to demand what we have always advocated, but perhaps have not put in place concrete steps to achieve them, which is that we must ensure the utilisation of locally made goods. Local content must not just be a rhetoric, but that it must be a policy and practical imperative. If we have steel manufacturers in Ghana, no government contract should be executed using imported steel. No development finance projects should be implemented using imported steel. Same should apply to all the other commodities. If we did that and we implemented those policies, the medium, the small enterprises will at least be guaranteed a market.
Enterprises will at least be guaranteed a market. Once they have access to the market, they are guaranteed income and then they can expand. Then we can see their entrepreneurial skills actually bearing fruits. It is not that they lack them. It is just that no matter how hard they try, the obstacles are enormous and few people are able to break through and that is why we see everybody pandering to government, looking for government contracts. All those who say they are really businessmen, when we go into what they do, everybody is struggling to get some form of government contract or the other. This is because we have not created the best environment for the private sector.
So, I commend the maker of the statement. Yes, there is a need for us to cultivate entrepreneurs—The curriculum, starting from senior high school to tertiary education must be oriented towards generating a generation that is entrepreneurial in their skills and orientation. But that also speaks to the manner in which education is delivered.
Mr Speaker, education is not delivered in the entrepreneurial sector. You go to some jurisdictions like Austria. In Austria, education takes place in the enterprise. The enterprises are actually the schools and government is simply a regulator of the entrepreneurs and how they train the next generation of entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists et cetera. So even when there is a serious global unemployment crisis, when we go to a place like Austria, they do not have a problem with unemployment because almost everybody has some skills, can work and they use their skills to make their money. The system pays according to their entrepreneurial skills and engineering skills.
When we go to a hotel in Austria, the best paid is not the manager. The best paid is the chef because it is because of his food that people come to that hotel. So, he gets more paid than the manager of the hotel. He gets paid better than the accountant of the hotel. This is because the real driver of the customers is the person who is delivering on what they actually want. So here, we find that people who wear suit and tie and sit in offices, tend to be the most well-paid and so everybody wants to wear a suit. Everybody wants to wear a tie. Even on days when we all have to wear smocks; they will wear suits and ties and come and sit in the Chamber and then they deliver big speeches about entrepreneurship.
Mr Speaker, the smock makers and tailors Mr Speaker, I am not talking about Speakers. Speakers are not involved. According to the best tradition of Parliamentary practice, Speakers are actually supposed to dress this way. Mr Speaker, I commend the maker of the Statement. I think that we should take this discussion seriously and let us begin as a House, beyond these Statements, to think practically, conduct hearings, invite all the stakeholders, and then come out with comprehensive proposals for policymakers regarding exactly what needs to be done to build entrepreneurial skills.
Mr Speaker, on that note, I thank the maker of the Statement for such a brilliant Statement.
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