Youth Entrepreneurship and Socioeconomic Change in Urban Ghana

Abstract

This chapter examines how young people in urban Africa are responding to globalization, economic restructuring, and socioeconomic change through various forms of entrepreneurship. The chapter charts different conceptualizations of entrepreneurship and explores its relationship to young people’s changing livelihood practices in Africa. Drawing on the case of urban Ghana, and situating youth entrepreneurship in relation to wider processes of global and local change, the chapter outlines how recent years of high economic growth have failed to create adequate jobs for a rapidly growing youth population. In a context of neoliberal economic policy, the current generation of young people faces few options other than starting their own businesses, and the government – in partnership with global development institutions – is increasingly promoting youth entrepreneurship as the prime solution to the mounting youth unemployment crisis. The chapter features four youth entrepreneurship spaces to show the variety of youth entrepreneurial practices and their connection to wider processes of change. While showing the resourcefulness of young people in carving out a living through their entrepreneurial endeavors, the chapter also highlights the difficulties involved in turning their efforts into viable enterprises.