The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Enterprise France to help Ghanaian Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to be more resilient.

A joint statement from the two organizations said the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States were partnering to improve access to and affordability of connectivity and digital services in the health, education and MSMEs sectors to strengthen their capacity to face the COVID-19 crisis.

Mr Clement Osei-Amoako, the President of GNCCI signed on behalf of the Chamber, while Mr Christophe Cottet, the Country Director of The Agence Française de Développement, signed on behalf of the other partner.

It said the MoU was to reinforce digital services to foster the continuity and quality of education and health services and support to the digital transformation of MSMEs to foster continuity of business during pandemics.

The Agence Française de Développement and Enabel are in charge of implementing the related projects in ACP countries while Expertise France is entrusted with the digitalization of MSMEs in Ghana, along with selected partners.

The statement said capacity building on digital tools such as e-Commerce platforms would be offered in order to learn or reinforce skills to sell goods even in case of lock down during pandemics.

“Through the MoU signed in Accra, GNCCI and the Agence Française de Développement and Expertise France confirm that Ghana is among the selected countries where Expertise France will implement the MSMEs digitalization project,” it said.

It said the MoU was a recognition of Ghana’s commitments to achieve the SDGs in general and in particular, of initiatives such as Ghana Beyond Aid, “One District, One Factory”, or Ghana CARES (Obaatan pa) Economic Recovery programme.

Mr Osei-Amoako said the GNCCi was a priority partner to roll-out the Project and it has a unique positioning and capacity to promote public private dialogue, as well as abilities to create synergies with public emergency responses to the COVID-19 in Ghana.

Mr Cottet said beyond the COVID-19 response, this project could contribute to redesign the MSMEs business model not only for a better resilience, but also for a convergence with SDGs and in particular green economy.

Mr Séverine Peters-Desteract, the Head of the Economy, Private Sector and Commerce Unit at Expertise France, said the project was also a great opportunity to promote gender equality, and Expertise France would pay a specific attention to women-led businesses and their staff.

Expertise France is a public agency and a key actor in international technical cooperation.

It designs and implements projects that sustainably strengthen public policies in developing and emerging countries.

It operates in key areas of sustainable development and contributes alongside its partners to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.