When the jobs don’t come, Ghana’s youth go online

In the scorching heat of the Bolgatanga Technical University, Emmanuella Avane once had a dream as crisp as a fresh uniform, to serve her nation as an Immigration Officer. But when the gates of the Service remained shut, the hospitality graduate found herself standing at a terrifying crossroads.

Today, she isn’t patrolling borders; she is shattering them. From the confines of her mother’s kitchen to a thriving enterprise known as Ella’s Food Services, Emmanuella’s story is the heartbeat of a new Ghana, one where the “green pastures” of Accra and Kumasi are being traded for the glowing screens of smartphones and the viral algorithms of TikTok.

Emmanuella’s transition from a frustrated job seeker to a vendor of natural groundnut paste, shea butter, and dawadawa tea was paved with what she calls “low-key” online interactions.

“Online is really, really helpful, especially TikTok,” she reveals. “You might post your products, and no one asks a price in the comments, but low-key they pick your number and call you. If I wasn’t online, I don’t think most people would know what I do.”

Starting with just two bowls of groundnuts, she now processes about six bags a month, sending products to customers in Kumasi, Accra, and Takoradi via STC and OA buses.

For Emmanuella, the internet has become more than a marketplace. It has also offered an escape from another reality confronting young women searching for work: sexual exploitation by men who use employment opportunities as leverage.

“Nobody can give them enough money in this world,” she warns other young women. “Don’t let any man lie to you.”

The Kantamanto Hustle: Koto Kofi’s Digital Shield

Hundreds of kilometres away, Koto Kofi Benjamin is navigating another difficult path.

A 2016 graduate who once dreamed of wearing military fatigues, Kofi now sells Timberland boots and high-end sneakers from the crowded alleys of Kantamanto, Accra’s iconic second-hand clothing market.

But the physical market does not always guarantee customers.

“It’s not each day we get customers,” he says. “The system is not really working for the youth.”

For Kofi, going online has become less a choice than a necessity. When fire razed Kantamanto last year, the digital presence of businesses became one of the few assets that could not be reduced to ashes.

Yet, the cost of visibility is steep. Kofi says promoting a single post on platforms such as Jiji can cost as much as GH¢3,000, a staggering amount for a young entrepreneur who already spends about GH¢30 each day travelling from home to his shop, alongside rising electricity costs.

“The system is not really working for we, the youth. We are just hoping things get better,” he says. “If it was not for this business, we would be wayward.”

In Adenta, Rabiatu Atule Akamim has turned another unlikely space into a workplace; her kitchen.

A Master’s degree in Public Relations could have led Rabiatu to the conventional office career expected of her.

Instead, she built Dawadawa Jollof Delight, a food business born partly from the need to manage her father’s diabetes.

The business has since grown to employ 10 people, with Rabiatu even helping some staff pursue further education.

Her market, she says, is increasingly online. “Most of the Gen Z and Gen Alpha are raised online,” she says. “The only way to capture such a market is to go online.”

Her decision has not always been understood. She faced the familiar stigma of an educated woman abandoning an office job to cook. But the business has given her something a certificate alone could not; an opportunity to employ others.

Even when internet shutdowns disrupted businesses, and the “broadcast tax” on WhatsApp made reaching customers more difficult, Rabiatu kept going, proving that in Ghana’s digital economy, perseverance may be the one currency that does not devalue.

But this digital Eden has its serpents. Emmanuella’s seven years of brand-building were nearly erased when hackers took over her Facebook and Instagram accounts and replaced her content with Chinese medical posts.

The threat is wider. Between January and June 2026, the Cyber Security Authority (CSA) received 3,363 incident reports, involving losses of GH¢9.87 million. Nelson Herald Darko, a Senior Manager at the CSA, says account takeovers and brand impersonation are among the threats confronting online businesses.

“Some group of people create fake accounts and use the same business name as the profile of the account and use it to solicit or act like the owners and take people’s money,” he warns.

For Darko, digital security is no longer optional. “You are the product today,” he says, warning that a compromised account can bring reputational damage, fraud and financial loss.

For young entrepreneurs whose businesses live on their phones, one successful hack can mean far more than a lost account, it can mean a lost livelihood.

For Iddrisu D. Mahmoud, Deputy CEO of the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), supporting young entrepreneurs requires more than training. Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) account for 92% of businesses, contribute about 60% of GDP and employ roughly 80% of the workforce, making their survival critical to Ghana’s economy.

“Money is not money,” Mahmoud says, stressing that entrepreneurs must understand whether they need grants, loans or other financing. He also advocates “patient capital”, financing with softer conditions and longer repayment periods to give young businesses room to grow.

But the bigger challenge, he argues, is policy. High borrowing costs, a tax regime that can discourage formalisation and limited market access continue to constrain young businesses. Government procurement, he says, should give greater preference to locally produced goods.

“The business may not necessarily just need money,” Mahmoud says. “But they will need access to market. Once you get access to market, then money comes.”

GEA has responded by providing digital training and creating online marketplaces to expand opportunities for young businesses.

Ghana Mall Online has 230 youth-owned businesses and about 450 products, while One Africa Online hosts more than 700 businesses.

But Mahmoud says young people must also change how they view digital enterprise.

“What you are doing in the digital space is a career. It’s work,” he says.

That, he argues, should mean treating online businesses as serious livelihoods, formalising them, managing finances properly and building them for long-term growth.

Albert Naa of Norgence Digital Solutions sees the digital space as an opportunity for young people to reach markets once beyond their physical reach.

Social media, he says, has made it possible to build businesses without the high costs of a physical shop, provided entrepreneurs develop the right skills and remain consistent.

For him, the opportunity is already within reach. “The barriers are down,” he says. “Learn a skill and use digital platforms to let people know what you can do for them.”

The story of Ghana today is no longer told in the corridors of power, but in the status updates of young people in Bolgatanga and the sneaker reels of Kantamanto.

It is a story of a generation that refused to wait for a government that might never come, choosing instead to build their own empires.

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