Young Ghanaians need greater access to markets, leadership opportunities and meaningful platforms to apply their skills if the country is to unlock the full potential of its youthful population, two youth development advocates have said.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Fertilizer Limited, Nana Kusi Appiah, and founder of Youth in Transformative Development Africa (YIDA), Christabel Odonkor, say young people across different backgrounds share a common aspiration – to be given the opportunity to contribute, grow their businesses and create jobs.

Their comments come as Ghana joins the global community to mark International Youth Day 2026, which is being observed on August 12 under the theme, “Different Contexts, Common Aspirations.”

The theme recognises that although young people come from different backgrounds, communities and circumstances, they share common aspirations for quality education, meaningful work, entrepreneurship and opportunities to build better futures.

The focus is particularly relevant to Ghana as the country continues to grapple with the challenge of translating the growing number of young people entering the labour market into productive employment and sustainable livelihoods.

The Mastercard Foundation’s Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026 highlights major transitions shaping the future of work, including the shift from agriculture to services, the movement of young people from rural to urban economies and the growing importance of relevant skills.

The report also underscores the need for quality job creation, greater inclusion and stronger pathways to sustainable livelihoods.

For Nana Kusi Appiah, who is a participant of the Kosmos Innovation Center programme, access to finance and business development support helped him transform an idea into a business producing fertilizer from organic waste for smallholder farmers in Ghana.

He, however, believes access to finance must be matched with access to markets if young businesses are to survive, expand and create jobs.

“First and foremost, I'll speak about access to market because we believe the young people have been given the chance, right? We have to be given the opportunity to serve in those markets as well,” he said.

According to Mr Appiah, young businesses often struggle to compete for contracts and tender opportunities because larger and more established companies tend to dominate procurement processes.

“When it comes to tender opportunities, most of these winning the tenders are big businesses,” he noted.

He is therefore calling for measures that would give qualified youth-led businesses a fair opportunity to participate in public and private procurement.

“I believe if there is a quota given to young businesses to go out there and tender, we'll also be able to do more and create more jobs,” he said.

Mr Appiah stressed that providing funding without creating access to customers and markets could limit the impact of programmes designed to support young entrepreneurs.

“Because without these good regulations, good opportunities out there for young businesses, we will access the funds, but then we won't be able to grow and create more jobs,” he added.

He said his own experience demonstrates how targeted support can help young entrepreneurs move from an idea to a viable business.

According to him, the Kosmos Innovation Center programme, which partners with the Mastercard Foundation, provided business development support and skills that improved his confidence when engaging investors and other stakeholders.

He said the support has enabled Ghana Fertilizer Limited to grow, contribute to job creation and support farmers through locally produced fertilizer.

Beyond entrepreneurship, Mr Appiah believes Ghana must also prepare for a changing labour market, particularly as agriculture gradually gives way to services and other emerging sectors as major sources of employment for young people.

“Years back, I mean most of agriculture used to employ the highest population of young people all over Ghana. But then currently this sector is gradually dropping. It's pushing away from that and it's employing more of the skills and also the services sectors as well,” he said.

He believes greater investment in emerging sectors, coupled with stronger support for young entrepreneurs, could help expand employment opportunities and reduce the barriers facing young people entering the labour market.

For Christabel Odonkor, however, the challenge goes beyond acquiring skills.

She believes young people must also be provided with platforms to apply those skills, demonstrate their capabilities and contribute meaningfully to national development.

“One of my greatest challenges was having the potential, but opportunity to utilize the skills that I have, and also to grow and then to meaningfully contribute to development,” she said.

Ms Odonkor, a communication and development professional, public speaker, event host and women and youth advocate, said programmes such as Emerging Public Leaders of Ghana and YALI provided her with opportunities to develop her leadership capacity.

Through the Emerging Public Leaders of Ghana programme, which is funded by the Mastercard Foundation, she said she gained valuable experience in leadership, collaboration, resilience and initiative-taking.

She believes such interventions are increasingly important because the world of work is changing rapidly and traditional pathways can no longer adequately prepare young people for emerging opportunities.

“We need a lot of reforms. The world is evolving, but then gone are the days that the traditional pathways that we had for young people were one-sided,” she said.

Ms Odonkor is therefore calling for stronger collaboration between the education sector, government, development organisations and other institutions working on youth development.

“We need a lot of reforms,” she stressed, arguing that young people need systems that effectively connect education and skills development to real opportunities.

The Africa Youth Employment Outlook 2026 similarly points to the importance of ensuring that young people are equipped with relevant skills while creating stronger pathways into employment and entrepreneurship.

The outlook highlights the changing nature of work across Africa, with young people increasingly moving beyond traditional agricultural livelihoods into services and other emerging sectors.

Against this backdrop, Ghana’s youth development efforts will need to focus not only on training but also on creating the economic environment in which young people can use those skills productively.

Both advocates say creating opportunities for young people must therefore go beyond training programmes.

While skills development remains critical, they argue that young people need access to markets, finance, mentorship, leadership platforms and decision-making spaces where they can translate their skills and ideas into tangible economic and social impact.

Mr Appiah said young people from different parts of Ghana may operate in different sectors and come from different backgrounds, but their aspirations are largely similar.

“We are all living in different contexts and building similar businesses, different businesses, but we all have the similar goal to be able to do more. We want to really be given the opportunity,” he said.

He urged stakeholders to give young people “a seat at the table” so they can contribute to decisions affecting their future while also creating employment opportunities for others.

For Ms Odonkor, her work through YIDA is similarly focused on using communication to amplify the contributions of young people and demonstrate how their skills can support community and national development.

Together, their experiences point to a central challenge in Ghana’s youth development agenda: ensuring that investments in young people translate into real opportunities to work, build businesses, lead and create jobs.

As International Youth Day 2026 draws attention to the different circumstances in which young people live, the advocates say the common aspiration remains clear – young people want the opportunity to learn, work, build, contribute and create better futures for themselves and others.

For young entrepreneurs and professionals, the message is clear: training can provide the skills, but access to markets and opportunities to apply those skills could determine whether those investments produce lasting economic impact.