John Kumah, NEIP CEO
About 5,000 budding businesses will be supported with funding, ranging from GHC5, 000 to a tune of GH₵50 million to grow their businesses and, in turn, create more jobs under Window 3 of the Presidential Business Support Programme (PBSP).
The successful beneficiaries will be selected from 10,200 applicants who received skilled training in the Middle Belt of the country, organised by the National Entrepreneurship and Innovative Programme (NEIP).
The Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Ashanti and Eastern regions make up the Middle Belt.
They are part of 26,500 entrepreneurs, nationwide, who have applied to be considered for funding support this year and have been trained.
Start-ups and young entrepreneurs benefitted from capacity building, mentoring, training, business advisory services, technical support and access to market in the PBSP.
Empowerment
Addressing participants at a recent training session, the Chief Executive Officer of NEIP, John Kumah, said the impact of the Presidential Business Support Programme had been huge in terms of sustainable jobs that are being created and the contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
According to him, despite these successes, NEIP believes that greater impact can also be achieved by going down to the grassroots in the rural and peri-urban communities that have not really benefited from the first two windows of the programme.
“I, therefore, urge all applicants who have had the opportunity to be part of this Window 3 to take it very seriously to build your businesses and impact your communities,” he advised.
Mr Kumah said the training was to empower the beneficiaries to build the local economies of the various districts as part of government’s agenda of Ghana Beyond Aid.
“The training also help the beneficiaries to manage the funds that would be given to them after the programme,” he added.
Training
The training focused on identifying local business opportunities, business management, business model canvas, branding and marketing, and simple bookkeeping and financial management practices.
According to him, agribusiness, food and beverage, production and manufacturing, tourism, sports and recreation, fashion, clothing and accessories are the top areas where the applicants want funding to expand or venture into.
The rationale for the training is to build the capacity of applicants in the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to effectively manage their businesses post-COVID-19.
