The Executive Director for the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh has indicated that her outfit has created over 18,600 jobs in the country from 2017 to 2020.

In a speech read on her behalf at the Bono Regional launch of the NBSSI/MasterCard Foundation’s Young Africa Works Project in Sunyani she opined that providing jobs for young people was a major component enshrined in the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  to aid and guide member states as they deliver on their respective mandate.

She also stated that their aim is to create an avenue to promote innovation and creativity towards developing more entrepreneurs within the Ghanaian economy.

“At NBSSI, we view this initiative as timely and an avenue to promote innovation, creativity and entrepreneur development, particularly at a period when the global economy has taken a nose-dive owing to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease”

She was optimistic that the project would add on to the “already expansionary entrepreneurship ecosystem in Ghana and make a strong position for the nation to leverage its entrepreneurship development agenda to create more jobs, wealth and grow the economy as the country aim to attain a Ghana beyond Aid.

Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh reiterated the commitment of NBSSI to collaborate accordingly with relevant stakeholders and the Foundation to grow and develop the MSME sector of the country.

The three-year project has three components – Innovative, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (ICE), Apprenticeship to Entrepreneurship (A2E) and the Micro Small Medium Scale Enterprise (MSME) Business Acceleration components.

The ICE aims at transforming over 25,000 young men and women into successful entrepreneurs, A2E seeks to equip and train 8,000 businesses, while the MBA seeks to fast track the growth and productivity of 2,000 MSMEs within the project implementing year.

the NBSSI with support from the MasterCard Foundation is implementing a project which seeks to create 39,000 jobs for young men and women in the country within three years, with 70 percent of females as beneficiaries.

MasterCard Foundation is one of the largest private organizations in the world which seeks to advance learning and promote financial inclusion to create an inclusive and equitable world.

Paa Kweku Eshun|Talks Africa Media