The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC) of Ashesi University and the German Development Cooperation - implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) - today announced a new partnership worth about EUR 1.2 million for the realization of the Business Incubation and Acceleration Programme for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) to promote economic growth.

The brief signing ceremony, which was attended by Patrick Awuah, the President of Ashesi University, and Ruka Sanusi, the Executive Director of the Ghana Climate Innovation Centre, served to highlight the need to promote green business practices and create jobs.

This initiative is in line with Ghana's Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The focus is on mitigating climate change and using climate-friendly technologies for economic growth. The "Ghana Green Jobs Strategy" aims to create over one million jobs by 2030.

Impacting Economic Growth through MSMEs

MSMEs are the backbone of Ghana's economy, representing about 90% of all businesses and accounting for over two-thirds of employment. Currently, some of the biggest obstacles these MSMEs face are the lack of business skills, low access to credit, high borrowing costs, lack of management capacity, and lack of access to the market. In addition, new business streams that contribute to green growth, are still at their infant stage.

For this reason, the GIZ Support to the Private and Financial Sector (PFS) Programme is implementing the Business Incubation and Acceleration Programme.

With this programme, the selected businesses are expected to drive the promotion of environmentally sustainable businesses and create employment opportunities that will have a positive impact on business performance, employee livelihoods, and the overall economy.

Additionally, all participating businesses will have the opportunity to access financial grants of up to 10,000 Euros per business to boost their operations and facilitate the further development of green enterprise initiatives.

Collaboration for a Sustainable Future

In a welcome address at the signing ceremony, Dr. Christian Jahn, the Head of the Private and Financial Sector Programme at GIZ stated "This collaboration between GCIC and the GIZ-PFS Programme exemplifies our commitment to building the capacities of SMEs to operate sustainably."

As the executing partner for the programme, Ashesi University's GCIC brings a decade of expertise in incubating early and growth-stage enterprises in the green economy.

“Since inception, one of Ashesi’s priorities has been enabling sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa,” shared Ashesi’s President Patrick Awuah. “The Ghana Climate Innovation Centre plays a strong role in helping Ashesi take this commitment to many more businesses beyond Ashesi’s campus. We are excited to collaborate with GIZ to expand this work further to support MSMEs to become green and inclusive.