15,000 Kayayie To Get Business Support

Frema Opare-Osei addressing female entrepreneurs at the workshop

About 15,000 female head porters, popularly called Kayayie, are to benefit immensely from government’s business support programme.

Ministries of Business Development and Gender, Children and Social Protection, headed by Mohammed Awal Cynthia Morrison respectively, are to partner some key institutions to implementr the programme which will build the capacity of Kayayie in the country.

Mohammed Awal made the announcement on Thursday, November 8, in Accra at the opening ceremony of a day’s seminar for some selected female entrepreneurs.

The seminar, which was intended to build the capacity and recognize the contributions of female entrepreneurs to the socioeconomic development of Ghana was themed: “Financial Inclusion for Women Entrepreneurship.”

It brought together women entrepreneurs who are knowledgeable in foods, cosmetology, finance, fashion, NGOs, pharmaceutical and medicine and real estate.

It formed part of activities marking this year’s Women Entrepreneurs Month Celebration.

Mr. Awal explained that programme shall be rolled out in the first quarter of 2019 and would seek to sustainably create decent employment opportunities for Kayayie.

He stated that “we think that we must formalize their work; what we (Ministries of Business Development and Gender) intend to do is to train them.”

According to him, “What they need is to build their capacity so that they can have their own businesses to do.”

“After building their capacity, we also have to resource them so they can settle back wherever they came from.”

He stated that the two ministries shall organize series of capacity building workshops to give Kayayie the necessary skills in marketing, finance and risk management.

He said the Akufo-Addo administration intends to reduce the number of Kayayie in the country, if not eliminate the phenomenon.

That, he said, was because Kayayie who are mostly women, and young girls who are raped and made to endure inhumane treatment.

As part of the programme, he said some of the beneficiaries shall undergo training in dressmaking, hospitality.

Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, who was the keynote speaker at the event, challenged female entrepreneurs to take advantage of opportunities presented by government’s flagship One District, One Factory policy to grow their businesses, saying the policy is not just a slogan; it’s reality.

She highlighted the important contributions of women entrepreneurs to the socio-economic development of Ghana.

Ms Osei-Opare observed that many businesses in Ghana are owned by women and the recent presidential business support had 58 percent of women business owners.

Gender Minister, Cynthia Morrison, also urged female entrepreneurs to save significantly to grow their businesses and improve the living standard of their families.

By Melvin Tarlue