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Dr. Ibrahim Awal, minister of Business development, says the current socio-economic growth needs of the country requires strong inputs into entrepreneurial skill development.

“Ghana since independence has mainly exported raw materials, and that alone is not very helpful now.”

Dr. Awal said this at the Fifth Baraka Policy Institute (BPI) Lectures, at the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, on Wednesday in Accra.
It was under the theme,” The Primacy of Technical and Entrepreneurial Training in Ghana’s Industrialization Quest.”

He said Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire, for example, produced a combined value of 120 billion dollars of Cocoa annually but got only seven billion dollars in return.

The minister noted that this only happened because “we” lacked the ability to add value to the product. The minister said it was unfortunate that in spite of the fact that the country had a high entrepreneurial drive, such situations still exist.

Dr. Awal said the government had a number of initiatives underway to improve upon the entrepreneurial capacity of the country’s workforce, which was currently crucial to the country’s socio-economic growth.

He said 3,000 people were expected to be trained in entrepreneurial skills in the country this year, while the teaching of entrepreneurial skills in second cycle, as well as tertiary institutions, would be intensified.

The minister said the key aim of these initiatives, was to enable young people to set up their businesses, instead of depending on government employment after school.

He said the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, was ever committed to supporting entrepreneurial growth in the country, in order to improve upon the lives of the citizenry, and also speed socio-economic growth.