Minister for Business Development, Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal has urged young entrepreneurs in the country to seize the opportunity offered by Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to grow and expand their business to meet global standards.
He urged them to be competitive, given that the unveiling of the AfCFTA merges 55 African countries into a single market of 1.2 billion people with a combined GDP of $2.5 trillion, which will provide great business opportunities for trading enterprises, businesses and consumers, and government is ready to support them to meet their potential.
Dr Awal, speaking at a brief ceremony to present certificates to some 30 selected entrepreneurs at the end of a five-day ‘Training-the-Trainer’ workshop, assured the young entrepreneurs of government’s support to expand and grow.
The workshop was to promote and reinforce entrepreneurs as the driving force behind the socio-economic development of Ghana.
The training follows a $30 million agreement the Ministry of Business Development signed with the Institute of Creation and Development Enterprise (INCYDE), to provide training opportunities to 2,000 young entrepreneurs and startups across Ghana.
Held under the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), the aim of the training is to empower the selected entrepreneurs and heads of startups to train some 2,000 other entrepreneurs across the country at the various NEIP hubs and training centres by the end of the year.
The training covered areas such as consultancy, the search for financing for the launch of a business project, as well as strategic marketing and branding.
The Minister said the ministry will support the participants to train people across the length and breadth of the country.
According to him, the entrepreneur spirit of the Ghanaian is not in doubt, but the challenge is how to move him from small business people to the big business people.
“We want to move from being factor-driven to efficiency-driven. We want you to innovate in order to create jobs for the people. Do not fear failure; treat failure as gold, and when you fail, get up and try again,” he urged.
He noted that the training is aimed at providing international-focused skills and how to tap into the international market, including imports and exports, digital marketing and strategic management.
He was optimistic that the programme will certainly address these challenges to enable our entrepreneurs compete in the global market
Dr Awal said the training workshop serves as a way of reinforcing the existing co-operation between Ghana and Spain, as well as the transfer of skills and expertise from Spain to local entrepreneurs in Ghana.
He added that creating an entrepreneurial community requires vision and commitment on the part of government to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurs to succeed, especially in Ghana, where SMEs contribute about 70 per cent to the GDP.
According to him, the President is committed to seeing the entrepreneurial drive of the country grow because he believes that entrepreneurship serves as the backbone of the country’s economic development.
Spanish Ambassador to Ghana, Alicia Rico, speaking at the closing ceremony, said the training was a great step towards deepening Spain’s business relationship with Ghana.
She said Spain is looking forward to train more Ghanaians to help increase the entrepreneur culture among the Ghanaian youth.
On behalf of the participants, Noel Tei Wayo expressed profound gratitude to the ministry for the knowledge acquired in entrepreneurship.
He said the training has uncovered ideas and made them understand things in a broader perspective as far as entrepreneurship was concerned.
He said the knowledge they have acquired will speak volumes in years to come.
Source: The Finder
