Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah has encouraged business startups and the youth who want to enter into business not to despise the small beginnings of their establishment saying, “small things matter because they can be developed and grown with time.”
He also implored final year students in the tertiary institutions to concentrate on their studies so as to graduate with good grades, follow their passion and convert their passion into profit-making ventures in order not to add to the graduate unemployment rate in the country.
He recounted how his grandmother started a corn milling business which later got her into the hotel business and now has culminated into a family conglomerate and legacy.
Mr Darko-Mensah who was speaking in an interview with Mr T, host of the Foot Print show on Beach Fm affirmed his interest in politics and said politics was more than money because it gives one the ability to do more for the people you love, cherish and care about.
He deemed the proposed “YouStart” initiative as stated in the 2022 Budget as a more sustainable and basic way of dealing with graduate unemployment in the country and urged the youth in the region to prepare adequately so as to take advantage of the initiative to create sustainable businesses to create employment for themselves and others.
According to him, the initiative comes with huge potential to multiply the investment made available to the youth and expressed the hope that it was the surest way to increase the economic activities of the region.
He, therefore, urged the youth and those who want to enter into politics to be encouraged to pursue it with all seriousness but advised them to enter with a good conscience and not self-seeking interest.
The Minister, however, bemoaned the situation where the citizens shy away from fulfilling their tax obligations which is a major tool used to develop the country and called on the citizens to change their attitudes towards fulfilling their tax obligations.
Touching on infrastructural development in particular roads, he mentioned that the Government agenda on road development in the country has not died out and the region has gotten a fair share of the cake as sod has been cut for the commencement of the Takoradi-Tarkwa road where the contractor has mobilised to site.
Mr Darko-Mensah further mentioned that work on the 3-Tier Interchange was progressing steadily.
Story: Seth A Danquah
