By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, Nov. 16, GNA – The Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV) has pledged its commitment to partner stakeholders to help develop, create and promote green businesses in Ghana.
Mr Laouali Sadda, the Green Projects Manager at the SNV, who stated this said his organisation would continue to partner Ghana and join forces with stakeholders to create jobs that were environmentally friendly and thereby, contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions.
“The effects of climate change are real, and we cannot continue to do business as usual.
We are therefore, to promote the green jobs agenda where we seek to create jobs that are environmentally sustainable”, he stated at the launch of the 2022 Ashanti Regional Green Jobs Fair in Kumasi.
The Job Fair was organised by the Netherlands Development Organisation in partnership with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, under the European Union funded, Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) Project.
Other partners were the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Labour Department and the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs.
It was held under the theme, “Green and Circular Economy: A sure way to creating decent & sustainable employment and jobs’’ and brought together over 500 job seekers, employers, and exhibitors from the green and circular economy.
Mr Sadda said that some 6.4 million people in 24 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America, benefited from the GrEEn projects in 2021.
This was done through promoting system change, strengthening institutions as well as kick starting markets.
He noted that since 1992 when SNV started operations in Ghana, it had focused on promoting access to basic services in agriculture, energy and water, adding that, the GrEEn project in Ghana was one of the key projects that continued to drive system change.
Mr Sadda noted that since 2019, when SNV Ghana started co-implementing the GrEEn Project in partnership with the UN Capital Development Fund and the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, it had been able to promote sustainable and climate-resilient growth of the local economy in the Ashanti and Western Regions, where the project was being implemented.
He said the SNV was also working under its flagship, Opportunities for Youth Employment (OYE) Programme to provide practical and employable skills to young people looking for jobs.
Mr Sadda said in November 2021, 113 companies provided jobs for some 3,680 people through the regional job fairs held in Kumasi and Takoradi.
GNA