President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has presented GH¢2 million to 1,000 women entrepreneurs living with disability, under the Presidential Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs with Disability.
At a brief ceremony at Jubilee House on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Presidential Empowerment Programme is not only a fulfillment of an NPP Manifesto pledge to support women entrepreneurs and help improve the livelihoods of the disabled, but also to help realise goals no. 5, 8, and 10 of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
“Having set a fund target of some GH¢4 million, over the next two years, to support disabled women in business, the Ministry of Business Development has so far raised GH¢2 million of the amount.
“The 1,000 beneficiaries will not be required to pay any interest on the amounts they are going to receive.”
“They will only pay back 50 percent of the principal advanced to them. This gesture is part of my government’s support to our disabled women entrepreneurs, to help them scale up their businesses, and employ more people.
“We anticipate that, with the monies being given to them today, they will and should be able employ, at least, two persons,” the President said.
President Akufo-Addo was confident that, through this initiative, the conditions of Ghanaian disabled women entrepreneurs can be improved significantly, so they can take advantage of the growing business-friendly environment in the country, and also take advantage of the numerous opportunities available under the several flagship programmes of Government such as the “One District, One Factory”, “Planting for Food and Jobs”, and “One Village, One Dam” projects.
More newly created businesses owned by women
Addressing the gathering, the President noted that over the last decade in Ghana, newly created businesses have been run and owned by women, as opposed to being owned or managed by men.
That is why Government, according to the President, under the auspices of the Ministry of Business Development, is focusing a great deal of its attention on improving on the quality of women entrepreneurship in the country, to help achieve the goals of sustainable, inclusive growth, enhanced livelihoods, and the creation of jobs.
He recalled how on August, 7 2018, 1,350 men and women, from all parts of the country, became the first recipients of the Presidential Business Support Programme, with beneficiaries receiving seed capital ranging from GH¢10,000 to GH¢100,000 each.
“It is noteworthy that 58 per cent of the one thousand, three hundred and fifty (1,350) businesses that received financial support were of those owned by women,” he said.
President Akufo-Addo said “Again, six out of the 10 innovative business ideas, that emerged as winners in the Presidential Pitch event of 25th June, 2018, were created by young women entrepreneurs. We are not resting on our oars, because we believe there is still a lot of work that has to be done in helping to provide support, especially for our women.”
Gov’t doing more for PwDs
To the leadership of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organizations, President Akufo-Addo stressed that if there has been any Government that has been on the side of Persons with Disabilities, it is his Government.
“Amongst others, we have increased the share of the District Assemblies Common Fund to Persons with Disabilities from 2 to 3 per cent, and we have also ensured the implementation of our pledge of employing 50per cent of the persons who manage the country’s toll booths from amongst Persons with Disabilities,” the President said.
President Akufo-Addo assured further that his Government will continue to implement policies and programmes aimed at building a fair and inclusive society, which creates equal opportunities for all.
“My confidence in the sheer energy and can-do spirit of the Ghanaian makes me believe that, in you, our women entrepreneurs, the future of the Ghanaian private sector is extremely promising,” he added.
Business Development Minister
Business development Minister Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal touted the visionary leadership provided by President Nana Akuf0-Addo by making provisions to ensure that everyone is included in the development agenda of the country.
“It takes a caring government to identify the needs of disabled people and more importantly it takes a visionary leader like you to design schemes to support disabled persons”
He said the schemes provided a timely support for disabled persons who have wandered for years in search of the little support to either start small businesses or scale up to no avail.
He however noted that the government’s initiatives to create an entrepreneurial environment, provides a perfect fix for the challenges disabled persons faced in the past in the efforts to start businesses of their own .
He noted that the agenda of government is to create an economy that is self sufficient by supporting entrepreneurship.
“We want to move to an efficient driven economy and the only way we can do this is to create entrepreneurs “
In furtherance of this agenda, the Minister recalled that just about a week ago, the Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia launched the Student Entrepreneurship Initiative at the Business School of the University of Ghana with the aim of supporting bankable entrepreneurship ideas among students.
He also announced that over the next few months, his outfit would be offering a number of support for disabled women to start their own businesses.
He emphasised that disability is not inability and thus government through his ministry is committed to empowering such women.
The Finder