By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, Sept. 27, GNA – To promote job creation and the growth of local businesses, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation under its European Union (EU) in Ghana-funded, GrEEn Project, has organised the third and last of its GrEEn Regional Job Fair in the Ashanti Region.
This year’s fair is to inspire young people to seek and explore green job opportunities and solutions in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), as well as exposing participants to career pathway prospects within the green value chain in Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), agriculture and energy.
The exercise was in partnership with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Ghana TVET Service, Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Labour Department, and the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs.
Over 40 businesses registered to participate in the job fair to offer jobs to youth, women, and returned migrants who participated in the GrEEn Job Fair.
Mr Laouali Sadda, Project Manager for GrEEn at SNV Ghana at the 2023 Regional Job Fair in Kumasi, said business development support would be provided for entrepreneurs to encourage more youth to kick start green businesses.
He said the SNV was dedicated to promoting sustainable job creation and commended all partners for supporting in creating more jobs for the teeming unemployed youth.
This year’s Fair, which was held under the theme, “Career Prospects in TVET: The nexus of green jobs for inclusive transformational development” brought together over 500 job seekers, empl
Mr Sadda mentioned that SNV Ghana and the EU, through the GrEEn Project, aside supporting job creation, and skills development, also promoted growth of green local businesses.
Under the GrEEn Incubation and Acceleration Programmes, a total of 125 SMEs have received business advisory services to help them fine-tune their business models and access financial investment to grow since 2019.
Businesses with innovative ideas have also received matching grants to scale up and create jobs at the local level.
Over five million dollars in matching grants have been awarded to 99 micro, small and medium-sized businesses by SNV under the GrEEn Project.
Under the skills development component of the GrEEn project, over 6,500 people have acquired basic life, business and technical skills through training and internships with over 4,900 receiving internship placements to improve their skills in SNV’s three sectors – energy, agri-food, and water systems.
The Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) project was a four-year (2019-2023) action from the European Union, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ghana, SNV Netherlands Development Organisation and the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
The project aimed at creating greater economic and employment opportunities for youth, women and returning migrants by promoting and supporting sustainable, green businesses in two selected regions in Ghana – Ashanti and Western.
GrEEn was funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa with an amount of EUR 20,000,000 from the EU and co-funding from SNV and UNCDF and was implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development.
GNA