Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) and IE Africa Center (IE University, Spain) have announced a partnership to promote the economic empowerment of women in Ghana by focusing on providing leadership and development training for women entrepreneurs.

Speaking on the partnership, the CEO of the Ghana Enterprises Agency, Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, noted that empowering women is one of the most crucial concerns of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.

“To help address the challenges women face and to help build a resilient economy, the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) which provides business development, advisory and financial support services to entrepreneurs in the MSME sector, has put in place interventions that specifically target the economic empowerment of women in Ghana.”
Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh

Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh indicated that the partnership between GEA and IE Africa Center, an academic center belonging to IE University to provide leadership and development training programs will go a long way to help women in Ghana.

The CEO of the Ghana Enterprises Agency intimated that “leadership and development are crucial to driving entrepreneurship, so we need to partner with leading global universities such as IE University for institutional growth and development.”

Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh disclosed that the IE Africa Center has already provided leadership training to GEA’s executive team to equip them with skills that will allow the organization to realize its full potential. She moreover, added that this partnership is now being extended to include professional development for women entrepreneurs.

IE Africa Center’s Change of System

Begoña Gomez Fernandez, IE Africa Center Director, on his part, explained that the IE Africa Center adopted a systems change approach to entrepreneurship and leadership training by encouraging executives, teams, and leaders to address policies, mindsets, or power dynamics that underlie societal issues at stake.

The IE Africa Center Director noted that to drive systems to change at scale across the continent, the IE Africa Center has collaborated with and supported strategic institutions in the past, including the Ghana Enterprise Agency which is its latest one.

Mr. Begoña Gomez Fernandez lauded the Achievements of Ghana in women’s empowerment, noting that the country has done well “but more work needed to be done”.

“Ghana is a key country for the IE Africa Center because of their high numbers of women-owned businesses, exceptional political leadership, and shared values.”
Mr. Begoña Gomez Fernandez

Meanwhile, the IE Africa Center Chair, Felicia Appenteng, highlighted the achievements of the center. She seized the opportunity to explain the mission of the IE Africa Center.

“The Center’s mission is to shine a light on African solutions to global challenges, as such we’re extremely proud to partner with the Ghana Enterprises Agency, to identify, nurture and support African entrepreneurs as they spark systems change.”
Felicia Appenteng

It can be recalled that the GEA recently launched the Women Entrepreneurs Rise (WERise), a platform created to bring successful female leaders and enablers together, for professional networking, skills development, and knowledge sharing.