The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) of Ashesi University and the German Development Cooperation – implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) – today announced a new partnership worth about EUR 1.2 million for the realisation of the Business Incubation and Acceleration Programme for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to promote economic growth.
The brief signing ceremony, which was attended by Patrick Awuah, the President of Ashesi University and Ruka Sanusi, the Executive Director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre, served to highlight the need to promote green business practices and create jobs.
This initiative is in line with Ghana’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The focus is on mitigating climate change and using climate-friendly technologies for economic growth. The “Ghana Green Jobs Strategy” aims to create over one million jobs by 2030.
Impacting Economic Growth through MSMEs
MSMEs are the backbone of Ghana’s economy, representing about 90% of all businesses and accounting for over two-thirds of employment. Currently, some of the biggest obstacles these MSMEs face are the lack of business skills, low access to credit, high borrowing costs, lack of management capacity, and lack of access to the market. In addition, new business streams that contribute to green growth, are still at its infant stage.
For this reason, the GIZ Support to the Private and Financial Sector (PFS) Programme is implementing the Business Incubation and Acceleration Programme.
With this programme, the selected businesses are expected to drive the promotion of environmentally sustainable businesses and create employment opportunities that will have a positive impact on business performance, employee livelihoods, and the overall economy. Additionally, all participating businesses will have the opportunity to access financial grants up to 10,000 Euros per business to boost their operations and facilitate the further development of green enterprise initiatives.
Collaboration for a Sustainable Future
In a welcome address at the signing ceremony, Dr. Christian Jahn, the Head of the Private and Financial Sector Programme at GIZ stated that “This collaboration between GCIC and the GIZ-PFS Programme exemplifies our commitment to building the capacities of SMEs to operate sustainably.”
As the executing partner for the programme, Ashesi University’s GCIC brings a decade of expertise in incubating early and growth-stage enterprises in the green economy.
“Since inception, one of Ashesi’s priorities has been enabling sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa,” shared Ashesi’s President Patrick Awuah. “The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre plays a strong role in helping Ashesi take this commitment to many more businesses beyond Ashesi’s own campus. We are excited to collaborate with GIZ to expand this work further to support MSMEs become green and inclusive .”
About PFS Programme
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is implementing this programme on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. PFS aims to improve employment opportunities for small businesses in selected regions in Ghana.
About GIZ
As a provider of international cooperation services for sustainable development and international education work, GIZ is dedicated to building a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, and peace and security. We work with businesses, civil society actors, and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is the main commissioning party. Currently, GIZ promotes sustainable development in Ghana via about 50 programmes and projects. Our activities currently cover three priority areas: Energy and Climate, with a concentration on renewable energy and energy efficiency; Training and Sustainable Growth for Decent Jobs, and Peaceful and Inclusive Societies, which looks at good governance. For more information, please visit http://www.giz.de/ghana
About Ashesi
Ashesi University is a private, non-profit university with a vision of a flourishing Africa whose leaders make ethical decisions in the best interests of their communities, and where innovation drives economic, cultural and social growth. Ashesi educates leaders who will make this vision a reality, and collaborates with other institutions to multiply this work.
Located in Ghana, Ashesi is now recognized as one of the finest universities in Africa, with a proven track record in fostering ethical leadership, critical thinking, an entrepreneurial mindset, and the ability to solve complex problems. For more information, please visit https://www.ashesi.edu.gh
About GCIC
The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) is an institute of Ashesi University, and a pioneering business incubator with a unique focus on developing sustainable SME ventures and entrepreneurs in Ghana’s ‘Green Economy’.
GCIC’s mission is to develop and support an exceptional set of transformational ventures and entrepreneurs who are pioneering innovation and adaptive or mitigating solutions for economic resilience and climate change issues in Ghana. We do this with a focus on key economic sectors, the provision of premium business advisory and business mentoring services, technical support in the development, prototyping and testing of their innovation, as well as financial grants to qualifying SMEs within our incubator. For more information, please visit https://www.ghanacic.org/
