Boost for SMEs: GSDF grants GH¢100m …to 105 enterprises to promote industrialisation, youth employment

 The Ghana Skilled Development Fund (GSDF) has disbursed more than GH¢100 million grants to some 105 enterprises as part of the govern­ment’s overall strategy to promote industrialisation and address youth unemployment in the country.

The 105 constitute the first batch of beneficiaries out of more than 700 competitive private enterprises ear-marked to benefit from the fund.

The GH¢100m disbursed is a component of a $200million loan from the International Develop­ment Association of the World Bank for the Ghana Jobs and Skills Project.

An initiative of the government through the Ministry of Education, the GSDF is focused on creating jobs and ensuring competitiveness of the skilled workforce and raising the income-earning capacities of people, especially women and low-income groups.

It is a ‘challenge fund mecha­nism’ to address the skill needs of enterprises operating in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy, and is expected to create about 42,000 employments over the next five years.

Speaking at the launch of the Fund in Accra yesterday, the Dep­uty Minister of Education, Mrs Gifty Twum-Ampofo, said the fund would help support the upgrading of the skills of employees within at least 700 enterprises across the country.

She said it was to help companies in their productivity improvement and to enable employees adopt emerging new technologies in their areas of operation.

Mrs Twum-Ampofo noted that the launch of the GSDF was in fulfilment of the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo’s pledge to make Ghana a world class centre for skills development, and a leading country in Technical and Voca­tional Education Training (TVET) delivery in Africa at the centenary celebration of the Asuansi Techni­cal Institute in 2017.

“In relation to this the NPP Gov­ernment over the past six years has worked to improve on governance and management by establishing the Commission for TVET (CTVET) and the TVET Service through the passing of Act 1023 and Act 1049 respectively to enhance quality, expand access, and increase funding for TVET,” she said.

The minister further stated that “we are consolidating our gains in the past years by keeping to our promise. We are taking conscious steps to make Ghana a centre of excellence in TVET in West Africa and to make Ghana globally com­petitive within the TVET ecosys­tem.”

On his part, the Director-General of CTVET, Dr Fred Kyei Asamoah, said the GSDF was part of the government’s agenda of employing TVET to address the challenge of unemployment in the country.

“This GSDF is part of govern­ment’s overall strategy to industri­alise Ghana to create jobs and com­petitiveness of the skilled workforce and raise the income-earning capaci­ties of people, especially women and low-income groups, through the provision of quality-oriented, industry-focused, and competen­cy-based training programmes and complementary services,” he emphasised.

He explained that the fund was meant to address the skills needs of enterprises operating in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy of the country.

Dr Asamoah said TVET remained a key anchor in the government’s agenda to deal with unemployment in the country, and had committed resources in that direction to transform the sector.

On her part, the Lead Economist at the World Bank, Elena Glinskaya, commended the government for launching the innovative fund to bring together various stakeholders including both public and private sector partners.

She said the fund was in line with government’s priorities and in line with the World Bank’s agenda of eliminating poverty and sharing prosperity among all.

Ms Glinskaya said the bank was committed to supporting the government in promoting small and medium-scale enterprises towards skills development and jobs creation.