Social enterprises in Ghana have made a call on the government to introduce effective policies that will help them thrive and expand their services.
This was one of the major resolutions from Social Enterprise Ghana’s recent forum in Accra.
The forum brought together dozens of representatives of social enterprises across the country and partners.
Edwin Zu-Cudjoe, the Executive Director of the Social Enterprise Ghana said the contribution of social entrepreneurship to Ghana’s local economy cannot be overemphasized.
He said with more than 600 registered members across the country, SE Ghana is looking to build strong partnerships between members and also with state institutions to order to deepen their impact in Ghanaian societies.
“As change makers that are transforming society, we need to trumpet the transformation we are causing in society…We at SE Ghana are so proud of the immense work our partners, and the social entrepreneurship movement is causing in Ghana.”
Mr. Zu-Cudjoe said despite the significant achievements of social enterprises in the Ghanaian economy, more work still needs to be done.
“We have 69,000 social enterprises in diverse sectors causing transformation and change and we want to do more,” he said.
particularly because the impact of their work, besides the financial returns, goes to directly touch on societal and environmental challenges.
Mr. Sampson Abankwa, a trade analyst and Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises expert who represented the Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) said social enterprises in Ghana must take advantage of opportunities presented by the NBSSI.
He said the NBSSI as an agency will soon be transformed into the Ghana Enterprise Agency that will primarily focus on strengthening micro, small and medium scale enterprises in Ghana.

“As we speak, the Ministry of Trade has worked very hard to transform the organization into the Ghana Enterprise Agency. Parliament has passed the bill and so very soon, you are going to see a new era of NBSSI. What the NBSSI is going to focus on in future are basics things that NSMEs need more than 90% of business in Ghana belong to the informal sector and so the new agency is going to do a lot of worm to ensure that we have a lot of our sectors formalized to become part of the general economy and support economic development,” he said.
While expressing excitement about SE Ghana’s networks across the country, he said that the new agency will also raising funds locally to support social enterprises to grow.
“NBSSI is going to focus a lot of attention with its partners in trying to find solutions and innovative ways of helping NSMEs to find affordable financing in Ghana. This we believe will help businesses,” he added.
Mr. Abankwa further urged SE Ghana and its members to take advantage of Ghana’s involvement in the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Some social enterprises that contributed to discussions at the event including Nneka Youth Foundation, Dansyn Hub Ghana, Kaya App, Food for All Africa and E-Campus, called for public and private support to enable them continue to make impact in society.
Partners for the event include Reach for Change, British Council, BUSAC and the NBSSI.