The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has advised female entrepreneurs to take advantage of the numerous opportunities created by the government to better their lives and improve their businesses.
He said the Ghana Enterprise Agencies (GEA), through the Ministry of Trade, has been well resourced to carry out its mandate of being the umbrella organisation for the coordination of business development services for entrepreneurs.
In 2020, GEA, then the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), supervised the disbursement of GH₵302, 001 to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) under the Government-initiated Coronavirus Alleviation Programme and Business Support Scheme.
As part of the broader measures to combat the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government in partnership with the MasterCardFoundation and GEA, disbursed a total of Gh₵15,751,073.79 under the NBSSI/MasterCard Foundation COVID-19 Recovery and Resilience,” The President said.
President Akufo-Addo made this remark yesterday in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of the third biennial Ghana Women Entrepreneurship Summit (GWES 2022) and the launch of the Innovative Women Entrepreneurs Rise (WERise) Network in Accra.
It was organised by the GEA under the theme “Breaking Barriers, Accelerating Women-Owned Businesses” to address the challenges women entrepreneurs confront in their efforts to contribute towards the development of Ghana’s economy.
The President said, over 65 per cent of GEA’s interventions targeted women, making it an institution with the welfare of women at heart.
He stressed that GEA, with the tacit support of its partners, had rolled out innovative initiatives that were aimed at bolstering the growth of women-led and women-owned businesses.
The Minister for Trade and Industry, Mr Alan Kyeramaten, appealed to the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to initiate programmes with the financial institutions to provide guarantee support for women entrepreneurs to access loan funding.
He encouraged women not to allow any barriers stop them from becoming entrepreneurship, stressing that, the GEA had the most extensive business development services that support entrepreneurs.
“GEA now has 67 business resources that take care of every single need of women entrepreneurs, from finance to business development services among others.
In addition, there are over 200 business advisors centres across the country, which every entrepreneur should take advantage to enhance their business,” Mr Kyeramaten said.
The Chief Executive Officer of the GEA, Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, said that over 1000 businesses had received their certification through partnership with the Food and Drug Authority (FDA).