Ghana Provides USD 100 Mn For Entrepreneurship, Looks To Scale 3000 Startups

It is still early in the year, and different African governments are seemingly disappearing out of sight as it concerns supporting their entrepreneurs.

Ghana’s Minister for Business Development, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, has revealed the government’s plans to provide USD 100 Mn to support entrepreneurial activity in the country, with 3000 startups’ scaling-up in the picture.

While he spoke at the launch of the Graphic Business-facilitated Tertiary Business Competition in Accra, Awal said that the funds have been set aside to bolster potential entrepreneurs in getting their businesses off the ground without having to battle financial constraints.

“We want to make young people know that when you have a business idea, the government is willing to support you. In 2017 government devoted 10 million dollars to support startups but this year the amount is being leveraged to 100 million dollars and we will send it to support 3000 startups to scale up”, he said.

In Case You Didn’t Know

Ghana, in semblance to a long list of other African countries, has its entrepreneurs faced with the major fund challenge, which inhibits the launch and growth of businesses that would help improve the country’s economy.

In spite of the fund access problem, some Ghanaian entrepreneurs have managed to beat the odds and start their dream business, while others are not just as lucky. The absence of capital has also prevented some entrepreneurs from going global, resorting to starting small and employing only a handful of people.

The rate of unemployment in the country is one alarming hurdle the government has to mount. As Ghana’s leaders have pledged its commitment to address the issue, it is to no one’s surprises that they are tailoring USD 100 Mn for entrepreneurship.

Previously…

July 2017, the government of the West African country committed USD 10 Mn seed money for the establishment of a National Entrepreneurship Fund (NEIF). President Akufo-Addo, while speaking at the fund’s launch, said it would be leveraged to raise money from private sources and public organizations to the tune of USD 100 MN to fund its programs.

Expected to be the primary vehicle for providing an integrated, national support for start-ups and small businesses,“The plan will enable new businesses to emerge and give them the space to grow to receive financing and business development services to secure markets during the critical formative years, and to tap into a wide supply chain and network during their growth years, helping to create jobs at a widely distributed, national level,” he explained.

The Competition

Themed Developing Business Minds – The Hot Seat, event during which this development was announced was engineered by contributive efforts from Graphic Business and the Ministry for Business Development. It was a maiden inter-tertiary business school quiz which is expected to see 16 tertiary schools compete for the top spots upon been found to have the best business ideas.

Director for Marketing and Sales for the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Franklin Sowah, explained that the avenue was created to drive entrepreneurship skills among students.

“From our interaction, we notice that there’s a lot of opportunity for the growth of business but then there’s a gap. Our capacities are low in terms of picking up ideas and developing them. But we want to make thinking business a part of us which will help grow our economy”, he added.