The government will roll out a project in August, this year, to scout for struggling young start-ups and provide them with the needed assistance to showcase their talent in the country.

Dubbed ‘Start-up Ghana’, the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and other stakeholders are working to draft the modalities to rollout the first edition of the project. It is intended to be an annual project to support the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). A Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Carlos Ahenkorah, announced this at the second edition of the Young Entrepreneurs Forum last Wednesday, in Accra.

He stated that the government had established a number of initiatives aimed at supporting entrepreneurs in the country. He said the MoTI was also coming up with a number of initiatives to help groom young people to become good entrepreneurs and take hold of their economic lives.

Conducive environment

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Mr Yofi Grant, said the government had created a conducive environment for private businesses to thrive. According to him, there are numerous business opportunities in policies such as the One district, One factory, Planting for Food and Jobs, as well as One village, One dam.  He observed that the policies were crafted by the government to create enough working space within the business sphere for private businesses to engage in commercial activities.

The forum

The 2018 Young Entrepreneurs Forum was a two-day event which hosted more than 300 participants on the theme, “Connect. Accelerate. Grow: Phase II”. The forum provided a platform for the continuous sensitisation process of sharing the GIPC’s strategy and provisions of the GIPC Act 865, as well as the benefits participants could derive from it and create an avenue for captains of industry to interact with young entrepreneurs through building a sustained avenue for mentorship.

It also focused on promoting dialogue between young entrepreneurs and the government at the highest level to influence policy formulation, while providing leadership and entrepreneurship training for young entrepreneurs. Highlights of the event included an exhibition and opportunity for 10 young entrepreneurs selected by an in-house team at the GIPC.

Source: graphic.com.gh

Local entrepreneurs are consistently missing out on incentive opportunities from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) due to sheer reluctance to register with the Centre. The GIPC Act (Act 865), does not make it mandatory for fully owned Ghanaian enterprises to register with the Centre, yet, certain benefits and incentives have been made available for local enterprises that register with the Centre.

GIPC CEO, Mr Yofi Grant, told the Goldstreet Business at the second edition of the GIPC’s Young Entrepreneurs Forum that, though the process is not compulsory, indigenous enterprises could capitalize on that provision to grow their businesses by registering with his outfit. “There are locational incentives for indigenous entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector, including a duty-free import of machinery and equipment and to those in manufacturing,” Grant said.

He, however, explained that the decision not to register with the Centre, by most of such enterprises could be the fact that they may not be interested in that support. “What we have constantly done at the GIPC is the creation of awareness, educating entrepreneurs, businesses and investors on the various incentive regimes that are available.

Instead of approaching the Centre, it’s rather unfortunate that most of these local entrepreneurs look up to other difficult avenues for help,” he noted. Going forward, he asked Ghanaian entrepreneurs to register with the Centre in order to gain access to some of the benefits available.

Deputy Trade Minister, Mr. Carlos Ahenkorah, said it is important to safeguard the interest of Ghanaian entrepreneurs in the area of capacity building to enable them access loans, incentives and other assistance needed to propel their businesses. “SMEs form about 80 percent of businesses in the country and most enterprises owned by young Ghanaians fall under the SME category,” he said.

The government, through the Trade Ministry, Ahenkorah explained, will launch the ‘Start-up Ghana’ programme in August, an initiative to assist new enterprises. “We want to identify all start-ups, which are finding it difficult to operate and offer them assistance to enable them take off successfully,” he said. Also in line with the Ministry’s agenda is the plan to set up the industrial subcontracting exchange, where all large companies will be profiled.

“Through the profiling, SMEs in the manufacturing and supply sector will be giving the opportunity to identify the raw materials that these large companies require and then using that advantage to supply to those companies.” he disclosed.

The Second GIPC Young Entrepreneurs Forum was organized to build the capacity of young entrepreneurs while discussing prospects and opportunities that could be beneficial to them through the Centre. In all, about 500 entrepreneurs attended the forum, with some having the opportunity to exhibit their products.

Source: ghanaweb.com

The Trade and Industry Ministry is set to launch a start-up Ghana project in August to motivate and support entrepreneurs and start-up businesses to grow. Speaking at the Second Young Entrepreneur’s Forum, Deputy Trade Minister Carlos Ahenkora said government will also set up five incubation centers at the various universities to help nurture the skills of young entrepreneurs.

Three hundred participants are attending the two-day forum, organized by the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC). This is focused on promoting dialogue between young entrepreneurs and government to influence policy formation while providing leadership and entrepreneurship training.

Speaking with Sunrise on 3FM on Thursday, Chief Executive Officer of GIPC Yofi Grant urged young entrepreneurs to look beyond the borders of Ghana with their businesses and take advantage of the continental free trade agreement. “There is a market waiting for you, and that market has even been made easier with the continental free trade area agreement.

“And all it is going to do is encourage intra-African trade, such that we trade among ourselves so that if you want to export, there is a big enough market in Africa for you to export.” Mr Ahenkora announced that impact hubs will be created to help groom young entrepreneurs as part of effort to push government policy on SME development.

“There are many young entrepreneurs who don’t even have offices to operate from. So as a board member of the GIPC and also the Deputy Minister of Trade, we will go and ask GIPC to include in their budget for next year creating impact hubs, where young set-ups can sit and use as a platform.” Some young entrepreneurs exhibited products and services and shared their experiences.

Some said the programme was insightful and it will go a long way to help their business. Others called on the government to entice other people by putting more hands-on deck to help entrepreneurs.

If not, they complained, people are going to stop what they are doing. The forum will offer mentoring and master class sections for selected participants on Day 2. It is under the theme ‘Connect, Accelerate and Grow’.

 Source: ghanaweb.com

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC), Yofi Grant has disclosed that the three Baltic States have expressed desire to embark on a major investment drive in West Africa using Ghana as gateway. The Baltic States, located in the north-eastern region of Europe include Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.

Speaking in an interview in the capital city of Latvia after participating in a Ghana – Latvia Business Forum, as part of a delegation led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, Mr. Grant stated the GIPC’s aim at the forum was to strategically position Ghana to attract majority of investment inflows from Latvia and the rest of the Baltic world.

Touching on the uniqueness of the Latvia educational system, Mr. Grant called on the government to offer Ghanaians more opportunity to study there by increasing the number of scholarships awarded to Ghanaians annually.

The State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics of Latvia, Mr Ēriks Eglītis, on his part pledged to engage stakeholders in his country to ensure that Latvian education is made accessible to several more Ghanaians beyond the current numbers. Also, the Ghana Free Zones Authority charged the Latvian Business Community to invest in Ghana. The

Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Authority, Kate Djankwei Abbeo, showcased Ghana’s Free Zones regime to the Latvian business community at a forum organized as part of the working visit by the Foreign Affairs Minister. She stated in an interview after her displays that her interaction with the investor community of Latvia has seen several potential investors expressing interest in investing in the processing and manufacturing of goods through the establishment of export processing zones which will be used as focal points to produce goods and services for foreign markets.

Ms Abbeo added that the Authority will keenly follow up on the contacts it has established to ensure that the considerations given to the offerings of the Authority by the business community materialize in actual investments.

 Source: ghanaweb.com