By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, July 1, GNA – The Igniting Entrepreneurship Pathways (IEPs) programme has taken off to offer mentoring and internships to agricultural entrepreneurs across 17 districts in four regions of the northern part of the country.
The IEP programme is a comprehensive initiative dedicated to fostering the growth and success of agri-business startups led by women, youth, and persons with disability (PwDs) aged 18-35 years.
It aims to provide enhanced access to knowledge, skills, training, networks, and business guidance and enable the startups to integrate into agricultural market systems thereby fostering inclusivity, productivity, efficiency, and investment in goods and services.
The initiative, which complements the Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion objective of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Ghana Market Systems and Resilience (MSR) Activity, is expected to drive agricultural-led economic growth and increase household incomes in the northern part of the country.
The first cohort of 250 participants (mentees) underwent a two-day orientation on the programme’s objectives and components emphasising their roles and benefits.
As part of the orientation, the mentees were matched with mentors to provide continuous support throughout the programme, which would span three months, and additional three months for those who would need further support.
Mr Musah Salifu Taylor, Component Two Team Lead, Ghana MSR Activity, during the orientation in Tamale, said the initiative aimed to benefit participants’ households, communities, and the agricultural ecosystem in general.
The 17 districts, which are USAID Zones of Influence, include Wa East, Nadowli Kaleo, Daffiama Bussie-Issa, Sissala West, Sissala East, Garu, Tempane, Bawku West, Bawku Municipal, East Mamprusi, Mamprugu-Moaduri, Karaga, Gushegu, Yendi, Mion, Sagnarigu, and Nanton.
The Ghana MSR Activity is designed to strengthen commercial relationships between market actors, improve the rural entrepreneurship ecosystem to enable greater market participation, particularly for women, youth and PwDs, expand the availability of agri-services and link targeted policy initiatives to improved local economic governance across the USAID Zones of Influence.
Densu Associates, a partner of the Ghana MSR Activity, conducted the Entrepreneural Ecosystem Mapping from May to October 2022, which highlighted challenges facing micro, small, and medium-scale enterprises led by women, youth, and PwDs such as lack of awareness about capacity-building services provided by Business Development Services.
Following this, Densu Associates developed the IEP, which sought to unlock the full potential of agri-businesses and promote inclusivity within the agricultural sector across the designated USAID Zones of Influence.
Mr Taylor said after the orientation, mentees would be visiting their mentors’ enterprises each week to enable them to gather more skills and enrich their expertise.
He said after the three-month mentorship, interested mentees could continue with an additional three months’ internship, which would even be more practical and engaging to further enhance their businesses.
He appealed to the mentees to be committed to the initiative to guarantee success and transformation of their businesses.
Miss Fauzia Mohammed, a mentee and final year student, University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, who is into peanut processing, lauded the initiative for giving them insightful and practical packaging and marketing strategies.
Cynthia Kuyoli, another mentee from the Sagnarigu Municipality, a groundnut paste processor, said she was exposed to key principles such as planning and budgeting, customer service and business regulations and guidelines, which were critical to sustaining her business.
GNA