Mr Awal was speaking at the launch of the Maiden “The Royal Banking and Finance Challenge 2017” in Accra.  The initiative seeks to educate the youth and society on the importance of financial literacy and to provide, a platform for the educated youth to contribute meaningfully to the growth of the financial service sector on Ghana.

The Minister said government had a policy of making sure that the gap between the academia and industry was bridged. He said the Ministry intended launching a talent hands project to ensure that capable talents were identified at the tertiary levels and supported with projects and business plans.

 “Those who pitch their ideas well will be supported with the plan to transform into proposals for private sector assistance,” he added.  Mr Awal said as part of their mandate, the Minister wants to equip the youth with entrepreneurial skills before the youth graduates from school to become job owners and not job seekers.

The Minister said, when this was done, the graduates could expend the frontiers of business and employ more people to develop the economy. He said government was committed to improving the business climate of the country to easy business operations.  He commended the organisers of the programme the Edufair Ghana Foundation, saying it was a laudable initiative.