Alhassan Shani Shaibu with Sally Ofori Yeboah and other dignitaries at the CAMFED Trade Fair in Tamale
CAMFED Ghana has organized an Entrepreneurship Fair for young entrepreneurs in Tamale in the Northern region.
The trade fair seeks to create a platform for current, and potential customers and clients to transact business as well as an avenue for young women to demonstrate how they have utilised their resources in the growth of their businesses.
The National Director of CAMFED Ghana, Sally Ofori Yeboah, at the entrepreneurship fair, disclosed that CAMFED Ghana in partnership with the MasterCard Foundation is implementing a transition program titled “Enable young women to transition from school to entrepreneurship, further study and transformative leadership in Ghana”.
“ Another enterprise intervention we have implemented is the Scholars Entrepreneurship Fund(SEF). Given the limited job opportunities available to the youth, CAMFED and MasterCard Foundation concluded that young people would need to create their economic opportunities while creating employment opportunities for others. The SEF was therefore designed to provide funding to scholars and alumni with viable, sustainable, and scalable business ideas that also have a social impact. Beginning in 2019, beneficiaries received up to USD4,000 supplemental funding to start or scale their initiatives thereby positioning them as catalyzers of economic opportunities for others while enabling them to become transformative leaders.”
She stated that since the inception of the Young Africa Works program, CAMFED has provided a range of support to young women interested in starting up or growing their existing businesses.
“ We have provided start-up kits/grants to 36,052 young women to run their enterprises. Additionally, we have provided business management training to approximately 16,000 entrepreneurs and about 2,700 young women in male-dominated TVET areas such as IT, building and construction, welding and fabrication as well as electrical. We have succeeded in creating over 89,856 jobs relying on district-level enterprise structures such as the District Business Committees, Business Mentors, and Business Facilitators and in partnership with the Food and Drugs Authority, Ministry of Food and Agriculture, and Ghana Enterprises Agency among others.”
The National Director of CAMFED Ghana assured that their enterprise development program is designed to impact entrepreneurs, families, communities, and systems to enable a better business environment, especially for marginalized rural women.
The Northern Regional Minister, Shani Alhassan Shaibu, commended CAMFED for enabling the young entrepreneurs to showcase their range of products, at the same time creating visibility and a chain of network for the participating entrepreneurs.
According to him, over the years CAMFED has contributed significantly towards the eradication of poverty and addressing inequalities through girls’ education as well as women’s empowerment.
“We can all, therefore, say for a fact that CAMFED has done tremendously well and continue offering its support. I am also reliably informed that, through the collective efforts of their stakeholders, the support to young women for their various businesses is across 36 operational districts nationwide which is very commendable. Today as we are gathered here, these young entrepreneurs are here with us to showcase their products.”
He noted that women entrepreneurs create greater inspiration for other women to start and grow their businesses while creating networks among themselves adding that it helps in the reduction of gender gaps within the workforce while reducing unemployment amongst the youth.
“The future generation of women is likely to follow and mirror the successes of their fellow women as they see it as their source of motivation. Eventually, it will go a long way to reduce the rate of unemployment in the region and the nation at large. CAMFED has carried out its part in educating and supporting these young women and it’s time for them to rise and shine.”
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale