A Leading Woman Helping Women Lead through SDGs – Interview with Dr Genevieve Obuobi (PART 2)

Your focus and expertise is particularly directed towards SMEs. What is the government of Ghana doing to drive entrepreneurship in Ghana? And two, what part can SMEs play to reduce poverty in Africa?
So the government of Ghana, I would say, has done quite well. They have brought in several initiatives to ensure SMEs are getting empowered. I know they have a national agenda to ensure businesses thrive. So there is The National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP). This program’s focus is to support SMEs that are doing relatively well. There are some grants and short -term facilities to help the businesses grow. And they also help by using platforms like my own and other platforms to train and build capacity in these young businesses in the start-up stage. I know there is also the Ghana Enterprise Agency. Yes, GEA and their focus has also been very good. They realigned a lot of small businesses to grow and they’ve partnered quite a number of developmental agencies to get funding, grants and also to build capacity in budding businesses.
So I think these are the two things that I think the government is really doing well with to drive SMEs. And there is, I believe, a national agenda to actually make sure small businesses thrive.