Youth Entrepreneurs Initiative Ghana (YEIG), has lauded the proposed Youth Jobs and Enterprise Development Fund (YJEDF) announced by President John Mahama at the 68th UN General Assembly last week.

YEIG believes the proposed programme will be a "holistic and pragmatic" approach to providing young people with entrepreneurial skills and access to funds to establish businesses or expand existing ones.

Addressing the UN Assembly in New York, President Mahama said the Youth Jobs and Enterprise Development Fund will both establish and expand existing businesses to create employment opportunities for the youth and by the youth.

Youth Enterprise Initiative Ghana, who describe themselves as a non-profit "contemporary youth think-tank" are optimistic the initiative will compete with internationally recognised youth programmes such as Prince's Youth Trust, Youth Business America, and other similar interventions in China and South Africa.

"We solemnly entreat the President, Cabinet and the new management of this development fund to by no means underscore the deliverables of this programme but adopt resilience and proactivity in ensuring continual improvement for the bettering of the youth", a release signed by its founder Franklin Dorledzi stated.

They recommended that the National Youth Authority (NYA), the Ghana Youth Service Secretariat (GYSS) and the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) be "rationalized and restructured to synchronize...with the Youth Jobs and Enterprise Development Fund (YJEDF)".

They say this will attract the numerous energetic and exuberant young intellectuals and innovators in the nation’s "formal and informal system and across diasporas, national, regional, district and community levels with an integrated social enterprise perspective."

YEIG says they will in subsequent days deliver entrepreneurial and management training, technical and financial support and mentoring to young Ghanaians in agriculture, science, engineering, media and information communication and technology, among others.