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President John Dramani Mahama will on Wednesday present cash awards to 107 applicants for the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) programme.

The YES fund is a programme initiated by government in 2014 with GH¢10 million seed money to assist young Ghanaians between the ages of 18 -35 with creative and innovative business ideas with capital support and mentoring to realize their full potential.

Applicants could receive up to GH¢50,000 to either establish or expand their businesses.

The Chief Executive Officer of YES, Helga Boadi briefing the media said the ceremony is aimed at officially recognizing the successes of the beneficiaries.

“Whatever we will be handing over to them will be symbolic. It is not always about money. What will happen on Wednesday is the start of the entrepreneurial journey for start-ups and for those who have existing businesses, it’s a continuation on their entrepreneurial journey throughout their expansion.”

She said “we will be working alongside with them all the way.”

“But this is just the first batch of beneficiaries. We also have a second batch that will be meeting with the selection panel after the formal hand over of the bulk ceremony. After which we will open a second call for new applications with clear cut guidelines in submission of their business proposals,” she added.

A total of 2, 048 applicants were received by the YES secretariat from all the ten regions of the country.

45% of the applications were agriculture related fields, 31% services and 24% in cottage industry.

Following a screening exercise of applications, regional business clinics were held for applicants from October 2014 to March 2015.

Mrs Boadi said 365 applicants successfully resubmitted their proposals and duly qualified for the final stage of the selection process.