By Francis Ntow
Accra, March 18, GNA – The government and private sector players have been urged to enhance support systems for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana’s green ecosystem to engender scaling up of their operations.
That, stakeholders said would be critical in enhancing the capacities of SMEs in creating more sustainable and high-income jobs to help solve the growing unemployment situation in the country, and address climate change issues.
The observation was made at a ceremony to mark the end of a four-year €20 million European Union (EU) and the Kingdom of Netherlands grant project – the GrEEn project, in Accra.
The project was implemented by SNV [a poverty reduction oriented non-for-profit organisation], and under the auspices of the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development.
It focused on SMEs in the agric, renewable energy, water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors, and enhanced employability capacities of Ghanaian youth to contribute to a climate-resilient local economy.
Activities included a six-month business development training, access to improved funding and industry experts, and peer-to-peer networking – all in support of accelerating government initiatives in the green and circular economy.
Hands-on-training during the project included solar panel installation and repairs, general agriculture, including rice processing and animal husbandry, soap and bead making, and biodigester construction.
At the end of the four-year project implementation, about 1,000 direct jobs were created by the SMEs, 4,031 people created or developed self-employment opportunities, while 6,214 people were trained in green entrepreneurship.
Speaking to the media, Mr Irchad Razaaly, European Union (EU) Ambassador to Ghana, said it was important for Ghanaian authorities to incorporate the learnings from the project in other sectors nationwide.
He explained that green businesses were enablers of sustainable job creation as proven by the outcomes of the four-year project, thus when scaled up, would reduce unemployment and support the country’s climate change efforts.
“Now, SMEs are turning plastic waste into assets and sending it to the international market for recycling and turning electronic waste into battery components to address the lack of access to electricity in rural areas,” he said.
“This is a demonstration that green business is not only profitable to address climate change, but you can also create jobs through innovation,” the EU Ambassador to Ghana said.
Ms Megan Ritchie, SNV Managing Director for Countries, said, “the project has been successful, and we’ll do follow-ups to ensure that the employment created is sustainable.”
“Going forward, people have to build green and climate-oriented activities into their businesses; we have to look at business beyond making profit, but also something with environmental benefits,” Ms Ritchie encouraged.
Describing the project as “effective”, Mr Roland Jesse Prah, a beneficiary, said training and financial assistance had improved productivity and waste management in their operations.
“The project pushed me to a lot of bodies that helped me in getting access to finance; with a grant of GHS175,000, we set up a factory, bought machinery, which helped process and improve our product quality,” he said.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Roland Rice, stated that with the modern machines they procured, consumers would no longer have stones and other foreign particles in the rice produced from them.
“We’ve been able to increase our capacity, so in a day, we’re able to do 10 tonnes of rice production compared to the about two tonnes in a day that we were doing previously.
“Now, we can boast that we can sell our products in Ghana and on the international market, because the quality has improved and demand has also increased,” Mr Prah said.
GNA