Some of the beneficiaries
Forty-Seven businesses, mainly Micro, Small And Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) operating in the Western Region are to benefit from MTN Foundation’s Enterprise Support Programme.
The programme which is expected to support about 500 MSMEs across the country for the next five years is targets the youth, women and physically challenged led-enterprises.
The selected businesses will go through development training for about a month after which they will receive financial support for their respective projects.
The 47 businesses in the Western Region were selected out of 140 enterprises that applied.
Robert Kudzoe, Acting Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer of MTN noted that despite their enormous contributions to the development of Ghana’s economy, MSMEs are still faced with several challenges.
“Key among the challenges is lack of credit facilities, lack of access to appropriate technology, and inadequate managerial knowledge and skills”, Mr. Kudzoe indicated.
He explained that to help address some of these challenges, MTN Ghana Foundation launched the Enterprise Support Programme to assist the MSMEs.
He mentioned that the project was in fulfillment of a commitment MTN Ghana made during its 25th anniversary celebration and is in line with MTN’s ambition to create shared value for all.
“To the beneficiaries, I am very hopeful that through the skills, training and support they will receive, they will be able to meet their business aspirations”.
“We hope that the beneficiaries will work hard to build sustainable businesses that provide opportunities for the country’s rapidly growing labour force, particularly, women and youth”, he added.
He urged the beneficiaries to use the financial support judiciously so that others could benefit.
He said this is the pilot phase and that based on its success that other enterprises would be selected to also benefit from the programme.
A beneficiary, Gloria Benedicta Otoo of Lifekick Farms thanked the MTN- Foundation for the initiative and was hopeful that the financial support would go a long way to help grow her business.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi