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Good practice Imported

YouStart — Ghana's National Youth Entrepreneurship Fund

Ghana · Accra · See the Ghana profile · See the Accra profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 93% 43/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Ghana's national youth-enterprise fund pairs tiered business training with matching grants. By late 2023 it had trained 36,000+ young entrepreneurs and disbursed GH¢165m, but its original GH¢1bn ambition needed a $150m World Bank loan to keep 2024 targets in reach.

23,695
Entrepreneurs completing Basic-level training (by Oct 2023)
~165 GHC million
Total disbursed by late 2023 (vs GHC1bn envisioned at launch)
30,000+
Self-reported people in gainful employment
YouStart — Ghana's National Youth Entrepreneurship Fund

Details

Maturity
Scaling
Promoter
Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) / Ministry of Finance
Period
2021–2024
Keywords
youth entrepreneurship, SME finance, business training, job creation

Context

YouStart is Ghana's state-backed youth-entrepreneurship fund, announced in the 2021 budget and implemented by the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA, formerly NBSSI) together with the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme. Young entrepreneurs progress through Basic, Intermediate and Advanced training tiers before becoming eligible for grants, loans or equity finance.

Activities

By October 2023, 23,695 entrepreneurs had completed Basic-level training, with 7,975 reaching Intermediate and 4,514 reaching Advanced level. The GEA disbursed GHC65 million to over 3,000 startups and MSMEs under the World Bank co-financed Ghana Jobs and Skills Project, and signed a further GHC100 million grant tranche in November 2023.

Results

GEA's chief executive has stated that more than 30,000 people are now in gainful employment through the initiative, though this figure is self-reported and has not been independently audited.

Conclusions

The government allocated GHC200 million to YouStart for 2024 and set a target of supporting 50,000 startups and MSMEs that year -- but reaching it required seeking a further $150 million credit line from the World Bank. The gap between the original GHC1 billion fund envisioned at launch and the roughly GHC165 million actually disbursed by late 2023 is a useful caution: headline funding announcements do not always translate into commensurate disbursement.

Implementation
Indicative cost
High (€500k–€5M) — GHC200 million allocated for 2024; roughly GHC165 million actually disbursed by late 2023 against a GHC1 billion original vision.
Time to results
Medium (1–3 years) — Announced 2021; disbursement and training data through 2023-2024.
Staffing & skills
Ghana Enterprises Agency trainers and disbursement staff

Conditions for success

  • tiered training (Basic/Intermediate/Advanced) gating access to finance
  • World Bank co-financing supplementing domestic budget

Common failure modes

  • actual disbursement (~GHC165 million) fell far short of the GHC1 billion fund envisioned at launch
  • reaching the 2024 target required a further $150 million World Bank credit line
  • employment figure is self-reported and unaudited

Where it fits

Governance type
national government agency + World Bank co-financing
Scale
national
Income level
lower-middle income

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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