The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has called on government to initiate an exclusive ‘setup fund’ for women entrepreneurs.
The initiative the organization noted will enable more women to venture into business, scale up and grow their trades in order to become successful.
In February this year, Business Development Minister, Dr. Awal Mohammed, announced that government will soon rollout a GHS10 million fund through the Business Development Ministry to assist women entrepreneurs.
“That initiative, which is to support existing businesses, is welcomed and must be expedited but prospective women entrepreneurs also need a ‘setup fund’ to enable them establish and manage new ventures,” NBSSI’s Executive Director, Ms. Kosi Yankey told the Goldstreet Business at the Ghana Women Entrepreneurship Summit which ended yesterday in Accra.
Reports by NBSSI indicate that businesses led by women entrepreneurs continue to experience growth challenges especially when moving from the micro level to the small and the medium scale level.
That phenomenon, Ms. Yankey said, could only be addressed with an approach towards influencing women to remain in business.
“With the ‘setup fund’, we envisage a business advisory support, creating access to finance and offering technical support as the major assistance packages for women,” she explained.
Currently, NBSSI provides some access fund that supports entrepreneurs. The organization also facilitates access to funding for entrepreneurs and works with rural banks to provide support to women in small and medium businesses.
The 2018 Ghana Women Entrepreneurship Summit was organized by the NBSSI, to identify innovative ways of accelerating the success of women entrepreneurs in Ghana for job creation, participation and industrialization and to foster economic growth.
The two-day summit, which took place from June 4-5, was on the theme, ‘Ghana Women Entrepreneurs: From Voices to Action’.
By Wisdom Jonny-Nuekpe
