The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) has started two new interventions to put women and youth-led micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) at the forefront of the country’s economic recovery efforts.

The initiatives, themed ‘Women MSME’ and ‘Youth MSME,’ – are the outcome of strong collaborations with GEA, the Ministries of Trade and Industry and Finance, as well as the World Bank. The programs will be carried out as part of the Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP).

Over GH30 million and approximately GH60 million have been set aside for the women and youth MSME programs, respectively.

The Minister of Trade and Industry, K.T. Hammond – who launched the programme in Accra, praised the initiatives as “worthy, timely and ultimately strategic and transformative”.

With such support, K.T. Hammond expressed believe that the GEA will effectively lead the formation of a sizable pool of modern, globally competitive, and sustainable high-growth MSMEs that will drive and sustain economic growth and development.

“We are committed to continue leveraging funding and development assistance to address the challenges of access to finance. The launch is in line with the ministry’s efforts at achieving ‘development of SMEs’ – which is part of the ten-point pillars of government’s industrial transformation agenda.”
K.T. Hammond

Making reference to the 2021 Population and Housing Census – which suggests that the age structure of country’s population may be transitioning from one dominated by children (0-14 years) into a population dominated by young people aged between 15 and 35 years, Mr. Hammond noted that: “This reinforces the urgency needed to join forces with the private sector and development partners so as to fully implement Ghana’s MSME and Entrepreneurship Development Policy and enhance the creation of jobs for this population.”

He praised the GEA for taking the lead in implementing strategic programs and funding schemes for MSMEs around the country, particularly for women and youth.

“We expect GEA to continue its excellent performance in the use of digital platforms and provide comprehensive support through its extensive network of business development service providers. We also expect this to be done with the special duty of care necessary to safeguard long-term interests of the businesses.”
K.T. Hammond

GEA Notes Women And The Youth As The Future Of The Nation

On her part, Kosi Yankey Ayeh, the CEO of GEA, stated that the newly established programs will refocus the government’s focus on women- and youth-led MSMEs because “the future is women and the youth.”

“So it’s very important that we do a whole lot more to support female and youth-led MSMEs in Ghana…but not because we don’t see a high number of them apply for our interventions; the challenge we see is that they are applying for less amounts of money and the capacity to reach and exceed and move to the next level is being challenged.
“So, in order to be able to do more and do better – in partnership with the World Bank, the Ministries of Trade and Industry and Finance, we thought it best to develop new interventions that will transform these businesses.”
Kosi Yankey Ayeh

Despite the fact that MSMEs account for 92 percent of all registered businesses in the country and contribute roughly 70 percent of Ghana’s GDP, data from the Office of the Registrar of Companies show that only 44 percent of these MSMEs are owned by women entrepreneurs, compared to a female to male population ratio of 49 percent to 51 percent as of 2021.

Furthermore, young people between the ages of 19 and 35 constitute the country’s largest population segment – approximately 11.7 million; accounting for 38.2 percent of the total population of nearly 31 million people; thus, the introduction of these women and youth-focused exclusive technical assistance and grant funding programs as part of the government’s initiatives to promote and accelerate investments in high-growth MSMEs with promising prospects of scaling-up to become job creators.