From Promise to Paycheck: Will Ghana’s 2026 Budget finally deliver jobs our youth can live on?

By Stephen Gyasi-Kwaw

As Ghana joins over 200 countries worldwide this week in celebrating Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 17-23, 2025), the timing couldn’t be more critical. While the world spotlights innovation, job creation, and youth-led enterprise, Ghana faces a moment of truth: Can we turn entrepreneurial ambition into actual opportunity?

Every morning, thousands of young Ghanaians wake up with degrees in hand and nowhere to go. They’ve done everything right—finished school, earned certificates, mastered skills—yet opportunity remains frustratingly out of reach.

Meet Abena, 26, a computer science graduate who’s been job-hunting for two years. Or Kwame, 29, whose welding certification hasn’t translated into steady income. Or Fatima, 24, whose small catering business can’t access the capital to grow beyond her neighborhood.

They represent more than 60% of Ghana’s population. And this week’s 2026 Budget—themed “Resetting for Growth, Jobs and Economic Transformation”—is supposed to be their answer.

The question isn’t whether the budget promises much. It does. The question is whether these promises will reach the young woman in Tamale trying to start a fashion business, or the young man in Kumasi with automechanic skills but no workshop, or the graduate in Accra checking job sites daily with diminishing hope.

This analysis looks beyond the political rhetoric to ask: What’s real? What’s missing? And what must happen to turn budget lines into actual livelihoods?

The promise: what could actually change lives

The 24-Hour Economy: Bold Idea or Empty Slogan?

The centerpiece is ambitious: a “24-Hour Economy” designed to keep factories running, markets open, and productivity flowing around the clock. Government projects 1.7 million jobs by 2028 through industrial parks, logistics hubs, and manufacturing zones.

Imagine what this could mean: A single mother in Cape Coast working a night shift at a food processing plant, earning enough to send her children to better schools. A young entrepreneur in Takoradi supplying materials to a 24-hour industrial zone. Transport operators, security personnel, retail workers—all benefiting from extended economic activity.

But here’s the catch: The budget offers vision, not guarantees. How many of these 1.7 million jobs will actually be created? Which sectors? Which regions? Who ensures young people get access, not just experienced workers? These answers aren’t in the document.

Skills training that might actually matter

For once, a budget takes skills development seriously:

• Robotics, coding, AI and electronics entering basic school curriculum

• Six upgraded TVET Centres of Excellence

• New engineering and agricultural universities

• One Million Coders Programme (though funding details remain vague)

This matters because Ghana’s education system has long produced graduates for jobs that don’t exist while ignoring jobs that desperately need filling. A young person learning AI in Bolgatanga or drone technology in Ho suddenly has global earning potential.

The reality check: Training without job placement is just expensive hope. The budget doesn’t explain how these newly skilled youth connect to actual employers or export markets.

Money for Young Business Owners—But Will It Arrive?

Several financing initiatives appear:

• Development Bank Ghana growth financing

• A coming National Employment Trust

• MASLOC support for micro-entrepreneurs

• FinTech Growth Fund (undefined size)

• Green industry and circular economy financing

If Fatima’s catering business could access GH₵50,000 at reasonable rates with mentorship support, she could employ five people. Multiply that across thousands of entrepreneurs, and you have real economic movement.

The skepticism is earned: Past initiatives have been announced with fanfare and delivered slowly, if at all. Young entrepreneurs don’t need more press releases—they need money in bank accounts and clear application processes.

The gaps: What’s dangerously missing

No One Actually Knows How Many Youth Are Jobless

Here’s something stunning: Ghana doesn’t have a unified, reliable youth unemployment figure.

Different agencies report different numbers. No ministry owns comprehensive youth employment data. There’s no dashboard showing which regions are worst hit, which sectors are hiring, or which programmes are actually working.

Ghana has a Youth Employment Agency (YEA), but it currently lacks the mandate, authority, and resources to serve as the central data hub and coordinator across all ministries. Youth programmes remain scattered—some under Education, others under Trade, Agriculture, Finance—with no unified tracking system.

How do you solve a problem you’re not properly measuring?

A farmer wouldn’t plant crops without knowing his soil. A doctor wouldn’t treat a patient without diagnosis. Yet Ghana is attempting to solve its youth employment crisis largely in the dark.

Programmes Too Small to Matter at Scale

Some initiatives sound impressive until you do the math:

• A 6,000-person skills roadshow in a country with millions of unemployed youth

• Pilot programmes that never expand beyond a few hundred beneficiaries

• Regional digital centers announced without explaining how they’ll serve entire regions

It’s like trying to empty the ocean with a bucket. Well-intentioned, perhaps. Sufficient? Absolutely not.

The Informal Sector Trap Gets Ignored

Most young Ghanaians who “have jobs” work in the informal sector: street vendors, kaya yei, unofficial mechanics, market traders. They work long hours for low pay, no benefits, no security, and no pathway to anything better.

The budget mentions “decent jobs” repeatedly but offers little to:

• Help informal workers formalize their businesses

• Provide social protection

• Ensure fair wages and safe working conditions

• Create advancement pathways

So if the 24-Hour Economy creates 1.7 million jobs, but most are informal, low-wage positions with no benefits, have we really solved anything? Or just rearranged poverty?

Credit Isn’t Entrepreneurship Support

The budget treats credit as the primary solution for young entrepreneurs. But ask any young business owner what they really need:

“I don’t just need money—I need someone to teach me export procedures.”

“I can’t scale because I don’t understand tax compliance.”

“I have products but no market connections.”

“I need workspace, reliable electricity, and supplier networks.”

An ecosystem beats a loan. Every time.

The human cost of waiting

While we debate budget lines, real lives hang in balance.

Abena, the computer science graduate, is now considering traveling abroad—adding to Ghana’s brain drain and remittance dependency.

Kwame, the welder, has started drinking more, his frustration mounting as another year passes without stable work.

Fatima’s catering business remains small because she can’t access capital, can’t afford a commercial kitchen, and doesn’t know how to bid for corporate contracts.

Multiply their stories by hundreds of thousands. That’s the urgency.

Youth unemployment isn’t just an economic statistic—it’s delayed marriages, postponed parenthood, rising mental health struggles, increasing crime, and millions of young people wondering if their own country has room for them.

What must happen now: six non-negotiable actions

1. Empower the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) as Central Coordinator

Ghana already has the Youth Employment Agency (YEA). Instead of creating new structures, mandate YEA as the central hub for all youth employment data, policy coordination, and accountability across government.

Give YEA the authority to:

• Collect and consolidate youth employment data from all ministries and agencies

• Coordinate programmes across Finance, Education, Trade, Agriculture, and other sectors

• Set unified targets and track progress against them

• Report quarterly directly to the President and Parliament

The CEO of YEA should work independently but collaboratively with all ministries, functioning as the nation’s chief youth employment coordinator—not competing with other agencies, but ensuring they all pull in the same direction.

No more scattered programmes across twelve ministries with no one in charge. YEA becomes the quarterback.

2. Publish the Numbers—All of Them

Within 60 days: a public dashboard showing:

• Current youth unemployment by region and sector

• Quarterly job creation targets

• Training programme outputs and job placement rates

• Financing disbursed versus applications received

• Which programmes are working and which are failing

Transparency breeds accountability.

3. Scale or Stop

Every pilot programme gets 12 months to prove impact. If it works, scale it nationwide within 24 months. If it doesn’t, shut it down and reallocate resources.

No more permanent pilots that train 500 people annually while millions wait.

4. Reserve Real Opportunities for Youth

In every industrial park: 20% of contracts reserved for youth-owned businesses.
In every major government procurement: youth enterprise quotas.
In every PPP negotiation: mandatory youth hiring and training commitments.

Not charity—guaranteed access.

5. Build Full Entrepreneurship Pathways—And Leverage What Already Works

Stop treating credit as a magic solution. Instead, build comprehensive support:

• Months 1-3: Business skills training and mentorship

• Months 4-6: Product development and market testing

• Months 7-9: Access to finance with continued support

• Months 10-12: Market linkages, export readiness, procurement access

• Year 2+: Growth capital and expansion support

Leverage existing innovations: Instead of reinventing the wheel, partner with proven platforms. For example:

• Channel youth financing through platforms like SecondSTAX (connecting startups to diaspora capital)

• Use existing fintech solutions for digital payments and bookkeeping

• Connect YEA beneficiaries to established incubators and accelerators

• Link the One Million Coders Programme to actual tech companies hiring

Government’s role isn’t to do everything—it’s to enable, connect, and scale what’s working.

End-to-end support, not isolated interventions.

6. Make the YEA CEO Answerable with Real Authority

The Youth Employment Agency (YEA) CEO should be given:

• Direct reporting line to the President and Parliament (quarterly public reports)

• Cross-ministerial authority to demand data, coordinate programmes, and resolve bottlenecks

• Measurable annual targets with genuine consequences for failure

• Independence to speak truth about what’s working and what isn’t

Someone’s job must depend on whether Abena, Kwame, and Fatima get opportunities. The YEA CEO should be that person—empowered, equipped, and accountable.

Global entrepreneurship week: What Ghana can learn from the world

This week, as Ghana celebrates Global Entrepreneurship Week alongside 200+ countries, we have a unique opportunity to benchmark our approach against global best practices—and honestly assess where we stand.

What High-Performing Ecosystems Do Differently

Countries successfully creating youth jobs through entrepreneurship share common elements Ghana’s budget mentions but doesn’t fully operationalize:

Rwanda’s Approach:

• Single digital portal connecting youth to every government support programme

• Mandatory startup quotas in government procurement

• 72-hour business registration (Ghana: still weeks or months)

• Results: 80,000+ youth-owned businesses in 5 years

Estonia’s Model:

• Every child learns coding from age 7 (Ghana’s budget promises this—let’s deliver)

• Startup visa programme attracting global talent

• Digital-first government reducing bureaucracy to minutes

• Results: Highest startups per capita in Europe

Kenya’s Success:

• M-Pesa ecosystem enabling youth digital entrepreneurship

• County-level innovation hubs with consistent programming

• Diaspora linkage programmes for skills and capital transfer

• Results: 1 million+ youth in digital economy

What These Countries Have That Ghana’s Budget Promises But Hasn’t Delivered:

1. Speed – Fast registration, fast approvals, fast disbursements

2. Integration – All support systems connected, not scattered

3. Data – Real-time tracking of what works and what doesn’t

4. Access – Rural youth get same opportunities as urban youth

5. Follow-through – Programmes scale or shut down; no permanent pilots

Ghana’s entrepreneurship reality check

During Global Entrepreneurship Week, let’s be honest about where we are:

What We Celebrate:

• Young Ghanaians winning global startup competitions

• Tech innovations gaining international recognition

• Creative industries breaking into global markets

• Agricultural entrepreneurs feeding the nation

What’s Already Working—And Needs Scaling:

Take SecondSTAX, co-founded by Eugene Tawiah, former VP at Goldman Sachs and a Ghanaian diaspora returnee from New York, currently closing its fundraising round to launch what could become the “NASDAQ of Africa”—a Pan-African cross-border capital investment platform using financial technology which could connect early-stage businesses with global diaspora investors.

This is exactly the kind of innovation Ghana’s budget should actively support. A platform like SecondSTAX could:

• Enable thousands of Ghanaian startups to access capital from Africa’s $200+ billion diaspora economy

• Reduce the 6-12 month capital access timeline to weeks

• Connect youth entrepreneurs in Tamale or Takoradi directly to international investors

• Create transparent, regulated pathways for investment into Ghanaian ventures

But here’s the gap: Innovative platforms like SecondSTAX often build despite the system, not because of it. Imagine if the 2026 Budget actively:

• Provided regulatory clarity and support for fintech innovators

• Channeled some Development Bank Ghana financing through proven platforms

• Connected YEA’s youth entrepreneurs to these capital access tools

• Used diaspora engagement budgets to promote investment platforms

What Holds Them Back:

• Accessing capital takes 6-12 months (if approved at all)

• Business registration still involves multiple agencies and delays

• Regulatory uncertainty slows fintech innovation

• Export procedures remain complex and expensive

• Electricity unreliability kills production schedules

• Skills training disconnected from market needs

• Limited government support for connecting innovations to users

The Budget’s Entrepreneurship Opportunity:

If Ghana genuinely wants entrepreneurship to drive job creation, the 2026 Budget must deliver on three commitments:

1. Make It Easy – One platform for registration, licensing, financing, and support

2. Make It Fast – 72-hour business registration, 30-day loan approvals

3. Make It Real – Track how many youth businesses actually start, survive, and scale

Global Entrepreneurship Week isn’t just about celebration—it’s about learning from global examples and committing to do better.

The Bottom Line: This budget is a test—and global entrepreneurship week is our mirror

Ghana’s 2026 Budget contains real possibilities. The 24-Hour Economy could be transformative. The skills programmes could future-proof our youth. The financing mechanisms could unleash entrepreneurship.

But possibilities aren’t guarantees.

As we join the world this week in celebrating entrepreneurship, let’s not just celebrate what could be—let’s commit to what must be. We’ve seen bold budgets before. We’ve heard stirring speeches before. We’ve watched programmes launch with fanfare and fade into bureaucracy before.

The difference this time must be implementation—relentless, measured, transparent, and accountable.

While other countries turn entrepreneurship celebrations into concrete policies and measurable results, Ghana cannot afford another year of good intentions without delivery.

Because somewhere right now, a young Ghanaian is making a painful decision: Keep hoping their country will create space for them, or leave for somewhere that will.

How many more Abenas, Kwames, and Fatimas can Ghana afford to lose?

This Global Entrepreneurship Week, let’s make a national commitment: This budget will be judged not by its promises, but by whether a young person in Wa, Hohoe, or Winneba can point to it in three years and say: “That budget changed my life.”

Everything else is just paper.

And the world is watching.

Stephen Gyasi-Kwaw is Country Founder and Managing Director of Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) Ghana, an impact entrepreneur and ecosystem builder focused on youth employment and economic transformation. He welcomes feedback at [email protected]

What do YOU think? Will this budget deliver real jobs, or more empty promises? As Ghana celebrates Global Entrepreneurship Week, let’s demand more than celebration—let’s demand results. Join the conversation: #GhanaBudget2026 #YouthJobsNow #GEW2025 #EntrepreneurshipGhana

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