Official unemployment estimates in Ghana surged pass 4.1% from 2019 to 4.50% in 2020 (ILO, 2020), and most likely to increase in coming years. Ghana’s economy and its population size exceeding 30 million people with GDP per capital amounts a little above 2,200 U.S. dollars in 2018 and forecast to rise continuously in coming years. Nearly half of the country’s population works in the services sector, and around 33% work in agriculture. The population is fairly young, with only 3% of the total population aged 65 years or older.

Thus, the rising unemployment rate among the youth and limited opportunities for white collar jobs urgently requires collaborative efforts in creating alternative employment avenues. GASTRAN’s integral role in organizing its annual vocational and digital innovation training in partnership with the Agona East branch of the Ghana National Service Personnel Association, to equip graduates with relevant start-ups business development skills is laudable.