A young female cobbler who is working hard to train unemployed youth in Wenchi is unhappy about the lack of support of government for the entrepreneurial development of the youth.

According to Florence Ameyaa, most young people are ready to become world-class entrepreneurs but they lack the necessary financial muscle to do so.

She, therefore, called for banks to help young entrepreneurs to fund their businesses and ideas since the youth are not well-resourced and cannot provide collateral for loans.

Florence Ameyaa said she dropped out of school at the Junior High School level due to financial challenges. She travelled to Kumasi, the Ashanti region regional capital to play professional football but was unsuccessful.

“It is said that one cannot work without an education in Ghana. I was attending school and very brilliant but it got to a point funding became my biggest challenge. My mother travelled so I was living with my grandmother but she could not fund my education. I, therefore, went to play football in Kumasi but I had to quit because money became a hindrance,” the female cobbler intimated.

Unperturbed by the turn of events, she decided to become a shoemaker with the encouragement of a friend who was in the trade.

Young Florence decided to make shoes because her football career was no longer profitable.

However, her bid to build a world-class shoemaking factory did not come without its challenges. The young female entrepreneur had to deal with stereotyped statements against her even from her church.

“Those who are supposed to encourage me to work failed to do so. They are always tagging me for doing a man’s job but I ignored it and pushed on to achieve my aim of becoming a top shoemaker in Ghana. Their comments rather toughened me to get to where I have reached now”.

The female shoemaker has called on government to stop paying lip service to youth development. She further stressed “I am not sure what the government want to do with the youth.

They promised to prioritize issues concerning young people but the opposite is being done. I feel the government should reduce excessive tax and help those of us who are under educated because the youth is suffering.

In Wenchi here, “okada” is what most young people are riding to make a living but how big is Wenchi for everyone to be riding “okada”? Government should help us if they really want to so.”

For the likes of Florence Ameyaa, the sky is the limit but it will depend largely on how favourable the system is programmed.