Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) has held an inception meeting in Accra to officially kick-start its capacity-building-driven programme for 25 young green entrepreneurs.
Developed in 2021, the programme aims to position Young Green Entrepreneurs (YGEs) as catalysts for promoting and developing the country’s rich renewable energy resources for sustainable economic growth, contributing to improved social life and reducing the adverse impacts of climate change.
It also seeks to enlighten green entrepreneurs on how to align their businesses to the plans of the government while strengthening employment opportunities for young people in the green and circular economy.
This comes on the back of surveys conducted by the group, which revealed that young entrepreneurs still face challenges – such as limited or no access to funds, poor marketing and sale skills, and unawareness of tax incentives and poor development of business concepts.
To this end, SYND says it is confident engaging and guiding them will further position the businesses to be investor ready.
SYND’s Executive Coordinator, Chibeze Ezekiel, told the B&FT that with the increasing impact of climate change across the globe, beyond just having the right agreements, policies and strategies in place, there is the need to involve all relevant stakeholders, particularly the youths, to bring their skills, expertise, knowledge, and experience to bear to attain the collective agenda.
Meanwhile, as the country hopes to create about 200,000 jobs along the value chain of renewable energy by 2030, Mr. Chibeze emphasised that the YGE programme is geared toward identifying and empowering enterprising young people to develop innovative green or clean energy solutions, especially recycling of plastic waste.
Project Lead for the Young Green Entrepreneurs (YGE), Priscilla Adogo Ahiada, also noted that the three-year project will afford YGEs opportunities to grow and expand their businesses.
She added that the cohorts will be provided with relevant information that can help them align their businesses and take advantage of the available opportunities.
She, therefore, urged the young entrepreneurs to take the activities seriously, given the persisting climate change concerns.
Delladem Kojo Xonu, co-founder of Entrepreneur Solutions, is confident the programme will assist his outfit and others to structure their ideas to achieve progress and growth.
SYND is a youth-oriented non-governmental organisation that promotes youth inclusion in the natural resources and environmental space sector. It is also the convener of the Youth in Natural Resources and Environmental Governance (Youth-NREG) platform in Ghana.
Though Africa accounts for just about 3.8 percent of the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) from fossil fuels, it is the hardest hit.
