The Ministry of Business Development in partnership with the Institute of Creation and Development Enterprise, INCYDE, is organizing a five-day ‘Training-the-Trainer’ workshop to promote and reinforce entrepreneurs as the driving force behind the socio-economic development of Ghana.
Held under the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), the aim of the training is to empower 30 selected entrepreneurs and heads of start-ups to train some 10,000 other entrepreneurs across the country at the various NEIP hubs and training centres by the end of the year.
In an interview, Chief Executive Officer of the NEIP, Mr. John Kumah noted that the training is aimed at providing international-focused skills and how to tap into the international market including imports and exports, digital marketing and strategic management.
He said it will also cover areas such as consultancy, the search for financing for the launch of a business project as well as strategic marketing and branding.
In a speech read on behalf of the Minister for Business Development, Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, by the Chief Director of the Ministry, Alhaji Hafiz Adam, the minister stated that the training workshop serves as a way of reinforcing the existing cooperation between Ghana and Spain as well as the transfer of skills and expertise from Spain to local entrepreneurs in Ghana.
“As you already know, our entrepreneurs are challenged in several areas such as independent skills, poor entrepreneurial orientation, lack of access to finance and limited training. These problems must be addressed if we are to achieve the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda. Today’s programme will certainly address these challenges to enable our entrepreneurs compete in the global market”, said Dr. Awal.
He added that creating an entrepreneurial community requires vision and commitment on the part of government to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs to succeed especially in Ghana where SME’s contribute about 70 percent to the GDP.
Agenda for Jobs
The Minister revealed that government has launched the Coordinated Programme of Economic and Social Development Policies; an agenda for jobs, creating prosperity and equal opportunities for all.
According to him, the President is committed to seeing the entrepreneurial drive of the country grow because he believes that entrepreneurship serves as the backbone of the country’s economic development.
On his part, Consultant of INCYDE, Mr. Sergio Rodriguez, noted that: “This is a good opportunity to expose them to our method and our ways to train entrepreneurs and business people to improve the economy in general and place them at a strategic position for the world market.”
He said that INCYDE aims to intensively train these start-ups on how to improve their businesses.
Since its creation, the Ministry of Business Development through NEIP have trained and supported 1,350 entrepreneurs under the Presidential Pitch initiative where winners that emerged were supported with funding ranging from GHC10,000 to GHC100,000.
In addition, about 20,000 entrepreneurs were trained throughout the country on personal branding, company brand identity, strategic marketing and sales.
Currently, government, under the Ministry of Business Development is supporting 1000 physically challenged women entrepreneurs with GHC2 million to boost their businesses and provide economic empowerment.
Source: thebftonline.com
