The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has recounted achievements chalked under the Akufo-Addo led administration.
Executive Director of the Board Mrs. Kosi Yankeh-Ayeh iterated that the records won by the Board have helped a lot of businesses spanning over four years.
“The MSMEs that we have supported over the years have focused on supporting and building and strengthening businesses across the entire nation. Our setup and mandate is set up in a way that we support a decentralized system across the nation.
“Many people wonder, what were we doing and what have we done? And the records tell the story. From 2017 to January of this year, we have facilitated over 36 million Ghana cedis in access to finance, which is the core and a pillar of the work that we do”.
Speaking at the maiden edition of the Nation Building Updates, on the theme: “Leadership that delivers for the Youth” at the Academy of Art and Sciences, Kosi Yankeh-Ayeh disclosed that some 14, 738 businesses were created around the same time and a lot of other jobs were created within these businesses to support the youth.
The Ghanaian economy according to Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh is mostly informal and a lot of the youth businesses are within the informal sector, as a result the work of the Board “has been to move these businesses from where they are to another level”.
“This is unprecedented considering the work that the Board had been doing overtime”.
Additionally, over three hundred thousand programs have been implemented across the nation in almost every district across this nation.
Similarly, 185 new business advisory centers were opened and 37 business resource centers established under the Ministry of Trade and Industry to provide a one stop shop for business development.
“These 37 business resource centers dotted across the country are to provide the needed support to the youth of this nation, to help them build their capacity, to grow their businesses and also to employ other youth”.
Prior to this work, other intervention programs including the CAP business support scheme had been undertaken, and a lot of work “had focused on only supporting government initiatives and one rural enterprise programs”
Stressing on the relevance of the youth in nation building, Mrs. Yankeh-Ayeh noted that the Young Africa Works project in partnership with the MasterCard foundation was birth.
“The target of the Young Africa Works project in partnership with the MasterCard foundation in the next 10 years with other parties is to create three million jobs for the youth. Out of the three million jobs, 39,000 in the next two years will be implemented and designed”.
Pertaining to businesses grown under the youth interventions for Ghanaians, the Board highlighted that there has been a major roll out across the nation under the program.
“The A to E (Apprenticeship to Entrepreneurship), where we seek to equip 15,000 plus people across the nation with startup kits, with business and entrepreneurship training across the length and breadth of the nation.
“The second is the ICE program (Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship), where we would work across the nation to build the graduate youth and help them and support them. An intervention all designed under this current government support of the youth”.
