The Ghanaian government has launched a GH¢100 million grant funding initiative aimed at supporting the training and capacity upgrading of Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) owned by women and young persons. The initiative is being supported and funded by the World Bank and the government under the Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP). The programmes will allocate GH¢40 million as grants for women MSMEs and GH¢60 million to young persons between the ages of 18 and 35.
Boosting MSMEs Growth
The initiative is in line with the government’s aim of providing training, capacity upgrades, and funding to help businesses scale up and transition MSMEs into the next stage of growth, thereby improving their ability to increase sales and commence exports. The grant programme is designed to help MSMEs owned by women and young persons with generic training, capacity upgrading, and financial assistance. This will enable them to create job opportunities and promote gender equality and social inclusion in Ghanaian society.
Empowering Women MSMEs and Young Entrepreneurs
The Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond, said that the initiatives present an opportunity to empower Ghanaian Women in the MSME Sector and Young Ghanaian Entrepreneurs as they strive to grow sustainably and formalize their businesses. The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) will be tasked with the responsibility of providing support through its extensive network of Business Development Service Providers.
The government is committed to opening up access to new markets for Ghana’s products and services. The Ministry will continue to build and strengthen policy and institutional mechanisms that enable implementing agencies to be responsive to the needs of the private sector, especially SMEs in harnessing opportunities, including market access opportunities such as the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The Women MSME Programme will inject more resources into women-owned businesses or Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) owned by women with the aim of improving their capacity for growth and job creation.
The Youth in MSME Programme seeks to provide capacity support and financial assistance in the form of grants to businesses owned by young persons to encourage more start-ups by young people. The W-MSME and the Youth in MSME Programmes will provide a 4-day generic training to about 2,000 MSMEs shortlisted from a pool of applicants and trained in Business and Financial Management, record keeping, preparing, reading and comprehension of basic financial statements, working capital management and cycle, receivables and payables management, inventory management, and basic business plan development. Additionally, they will receive training in Taxation and Regulatory Compliance, equipping them with practical knowledge of the legal environment in which they operate.
