The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) have entered into a partnership to improve employment and income situation through WIDU digital platform.

The two bodies seek to put their forces together to support the WIDU digital platform, which is a tool to enable members of the African diaspora to invest their money into African business projects.

The WIDU programme, worth EUR 13 million, is an online platform used to facilitate, track and subsidize small private business investments in Africa.

It was created in an attempt to harness the entrepreneurial opportunities amongst families of the African Diaspora.

A press statement copied to the Ghana News Agency and signed by Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, Executive Director of NBSSI, said the objective of WIDU was to create new jobs, increase income and better economic perspective for Ghana which resonates with the government’s ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ agenda focused on job and wealth creation.

According to the statement, the Project would be rolled out on a nine-month orientation phase with Ghana and Cameroon serving as pilot countries.

The statement said the overarching goal was to support micro and small enterprises, entrepreneurship and job creation, by providing them with improved access to finance through the topping-up of migrants’ transfer of funds and capacity- building of entrepreneurial skills.

According to the statement, the Project was the maiden initiative that enables members of the Africa Diaspora to invest their money into start-ups and small businesses in Africa, supported and subsidized by the German government.

The statement said financial support from the Diaspora, NBSSI would provide coaching and mentoring to sponsored entrepreneurs.