Five thousand business startups are expected to receive financial support to the tune of about 50 million Ghana Cedis in the third window of government’s Presidential Business Support Program.

The 5,000 businesses will be chosen from about 26,000 business startups and young entrepreneurs who are expected to receive business training and capacity building in the third window of the Support Program over the next two months.

Addressing the media during the launch of the Presidential Business Support Program Window 3 Training, the Minister for Business Development, Mohammed Awal Ibrahim, said the program forms part of government’s plan to create more opportunities for the youth.

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, NEIP, John Kumah, asked local government authorities to ensure the initiative is made accessible to vulnerable businesses in their communities.

“Let me take this opportunity to appeal to all the MCEs and MMDCEs to make the program accessible to people living in their communities and in their districts, especially those in the rural sector. We are seeking to train tailors and hair dressers, welders and all those who have individual skills and want to setup as business enterprises and employ other people, and to empower them to receive funding. We are seeking to train an average of 100 per each district so when you multiply that by the 260 districts, we are looking to do 26,000 business start-ups and small businesses across the country in 2020,” he said.

According to him, these efforts have reduced the country’s unemployment rate from 15.3 percent in 2016 to 6.8 percent currently.

The Presidential Business Support Programme, which started in 2017, is among several initiatives rolled out by the Ministry of Business Development to strengthen the private sector.

It has trained about 19,000 entrepreneurs out of which over 4,000 have been provided with loans with ten percent interest rate to boost grow their businesses.

Source: citinewsonline.com