Entrepreneurs and business owners often struggle to navigate complex policies and regulations that directly impact their operations.

Whether it's understanding the steps to formally register a business, accessing available incentives, or complying with regulatory requirements, the process can be overwhelming, time-consuming, and inaccessible.

For many, essential policy information exists in dense documents and scattered across different sources, making it difficult to find clear, actionable insights.

To bridge this gap, GIZ Ghana, through the Digital Transformation Center (DTC) Ghana has tasked mNotify to develop an innovative solution - an interactive chatbot designed to make Ghanaian entrepreneurship policy information more accessible, user-friendly, and easy to understand.

This platform will empower entrepreneurs, startups, and business owners by enabling them to quickly find the answers they need without sifting through countless pages of policy documents.

As part of the development process, GIZ DTEG and mNotify have initiated a series of stakeholder engagements across seven regions.

These engagements aim to identify the key challenges entrepreneurs face in understanding business policies, define the best format for the development of the chatbot and ensure stakeholder involvement and ownership of the novel intervention for the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

At a Stakeholders’ Engagement Forum in Tamale, the consultant, mNotify led by Mr. Ronald Tagoe highlighted plans to make the chatbot available in key Ghanaian languages. Additionally, the platform will feature SMS and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) options to ensure accessibility by a wider audience.

"Your feedback is crucial in shaping the Policy Chatbot to address your needs as entrepreneurs," Ronald emphasized, stressing the importance of a strong feedback loop that encourages stakeholders and the end users to voice their challenges.

Speaking on behalf of DTC Ghana, Mr. Emmanuel Mumuni underscored the value of engaging stakeholders in the chatbot’s development. He reiterated GIZ’s commitment to promoting an inclusive digital society and entrepreneurship in Ghana.

The Entrepreneurship Policy Chatbot initiative has so far hosted similarly insightful stakeholder engagement forums in Accra, Kumasi, Sunyani, and now Tamale. Upcoming forums will be held in Takoradi and Koforidua on 18th and 20th March 2025 respectively.

This initiative is by the Digital Transformation for Inclusive Entrepreneurship in Ghana (DTEG) as part of DTC with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH’.

About the Digital Transformation for Inclusive Entrepreneurship in Ghana.

The Digital Transformation for Inclusive Entrepreneurship in Ghana (DTEG), implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH’. The DTEG projects aims at enabling an environment for micro-enterprises to use digital transformation to strengthen their economic situation and enabling intermediaries to do trainings and coaching for female entrepreneurs.

DTEG is under the Digital Transformation Centre in Ghana which is part of a pan-African network of flagship projects that the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is building to support the transformation process on the African continent. The goal of the Digital Transformation Center in Ghana is to improve the preconditions for using digital transformation for job creation and entrepreneurship, specifically in rural areas.

About GIZ Ghana

As a provider of international cooperation services for sustainable development and international education work, GIZ is dedicated to building a future worth living around the world. GIZ has over 50 years of experience in a wide variety of areas, including economic development and employment, energy and the environment, and peace and security.

The diverse expertise of our federal enterprise is in demand around the globe, with the German Government, European Union institutions, the United Nations, the private sector and governments of other countries all benefiting from our services. We work with businesses, civil society actors and research institutions, fostering successful interaction between development policy and other policy fields and areas of activity. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is our main commissioning party.

Currently, GIZ promotes sustainable development in Ghana via about 50 programmes and projects. GIZ is boosting Ghana's potential by focusing its projects on three priority areas: Responsibility for our planet - climate and energy, Training and sustainable growth for decent jobs as well as Peaceful and inclusive societies.

Additionally, our portfolio extends to other areas such as environment, peace and security. Another focus of GIZ’s work is linking business interests with development-policy goals. Most of the programmes and projects we support in Ghana have successfully brought together national and international private companies, the public sector, and civil society groups to collaborate on development initiatives. For more information, please visit www.giz.de/ghana .