A Deputy Minister-designate for Finance, John Ampontuah Kumah, says Ghana can create 10,000 millionaires through youth entrepreneurship in the next 10 years provided government continues to invest in entrepreneurship just as it did in its first term.

He said this on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, when he appeared before the Appointments Committee to be vetted as a Deputy Minister for Finance.

According to him, during his tenure as Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), the government provided funding to more than 9,000 businesses which can scale up to employ more people with further support.

“As the Chief Executive Officer of NEIP, I oversaw the training of 45,783 businesses on various business management practices under the Presidential Business Support Programme, and also disbursed funds ranging from GHC 2,000 to GHC 100,000 for 9,350 businesses. These businesses are all doing well and if more capital is injected into their businesses they can scale up and become giants in their areas,” he said.

The Deputy Minister for Finance-designate told the Committee that should he be approved, his focus will be to ensure that more funding support is given to young entrepreneurs and also assist in developing and implementing policies that will create more jobs.

“In four years, we supported 9,350 businesses. In the next four years, the government estimates to support an extra 9,000 that is about 18,000 businesses. If these businesses are properly managed, given more capital and support, we can get 10,000 millionaires out of this cohort by the next decade. This is the vision of President Akufo-Addo, and it is possible,” he added.

Meanwhile, according to OXFAM International, between 2006 and 2016, 1,000 extra millionaires were created in Ghana, while 300,000 people could have been lifted out of poverty had inequality not increased during this period.