AGI President hits the ground running !!!

Dr. Humphrey Kwesi Ayim-Darke
AGI President

The newly inducted dynamic, maverick and pragmatic president of the, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr. Humphrey Kwesi Ayim-Darke, is leaving no stone unturned to get the job done through interest groups and stakeholder engagements, geared towards the development of the private sector, leading to job creation for Ghana's teaming unemployed youth, of which Dr. Ayim-Darke is very passionate about.Days after participating and contributing significantly at a Round Table Discussion organized by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) on : Making monetary policy in Ghana more fit - for- purpose. 

Presented by Dr. John K. Kwakye, Director of Research IEA and Chaired by Mr. Theodore Markham, Senior Fellow, IEA, Dr. Ayim-Darke, in his meaningful contribution, pledged the AGI's support, partnership and collaboration with the IEA for more of such engagements and platforms.

Dr. Humphrey Kwesi Ayim-Darke, also honoured the invitation to address the 73rd Annual New Year School and Conference which took place at the University of Ghana as a guest speaker and lead discussant on the theme: 

“The Private Sector and the Youth: Engine of Growth”.

Dr. Ayim-Darke, indicated that the private sector is simply made of individual and organizations engaged in rent seeking activities, who rely on government or state to create an enabling business environment for their successful operations, with constraints such as:

High cost of capital, Lack of finance and credit, Technological challenges, Challenging ease of doing business, Lack of infrastructural support, Inadequate state support for SMEs,

Competition from cheap imports, Lack of capacity, awareness, knowledge and skills, plaguing the private sector.

He stipulated that the World Bank's Development Report 2013 on jobs, estimated that about 200 million youth are unemployed worldwide and that 600 million jobs will be needed over 15 years to maintain global employment rates.

Ghana is no different Dr. Ayim-Darke said. " In 2016, it was projected that because of the country's growing youth population, 300,000 new jobs would have to be created each year to absorb the increasing number of unemployed young people. Yet the structure of our economy in terms of employment has not changed much from several decades ago".

"Youth who chose to venture into entrepreneurship face additional constraints, including : Weak support systems for entrepreneurship and small scale business development for self employment, limited access to physical resources and other challenges such as land, equipment and financial capital, lack of technology, high transportation cost, high cost to obtain licenses to operate formally, and lack of networking opportunities, especially by youth".

Dr. Ayim-Darke, made mention of AGI's interventions and partnerships in support of youth entrepreneurship, such as the Elevator Pitch Contest, organization of training and mentorship programmes, and the establishment of AGI training centre for young entrepreneurs.

In conclusion, the President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Dr. Humphrey Kwesi Ayim-Darke said,

"Entrepreneurship, like any other discipline, is not without challenges.....however, it is worth the effort, the input and the time, quoting from Robert T. Kiyosaki " It's better to work years at creating an asset rather than spend your life working hard for money to create someone else's assets".