The CEO of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), John Kumah, has said that government, through the new programme, will soon roll out plans that support start-up businesses to grow into larger companies.
He said the move has become necessary as the public sector no longer has the prospect of providing employment.
“We have noticed that there is not much space in the public sector, and that is why government launched the NEIP programme to focus on private sector job-creation through business incubations, through startup and acceleration programmes, and through provision of financial and technical assistance to people with business ideas and how we can help to scale them up, so that in the process we create jobs and opportunities for everybody,” he said.
Mr. Kumah made this comment at the Start-Up Investor Conference held in Accra, which was themed ‘Securing investments for startup and early stage businesses’ and organised by MBC Africa.
He further stated that as part of the NEIP programme, government will set up free office space for start-ups, aimed at easing the cost of setting up for start-up entrepreneurs.
Also at the event was the Netherlands Ambassador to Ghana, Ron Strikker, who lauded the MBC initiative; saying it has created a platform to offer technical training for start-ups through pitching that will further link them with investors – adding it will help move companies from the level of start-ups to SMEs.
CEO of MBC Africa, a one-stop boutique that provides a comprehensive solution to SMEs, Tenemba Anna Samake also highlighted how the programme is designed to address the pressing needs of SMEs.
“We have designed this programme with our partner in the Netherlands—Impact Booster—and the objective of the programme is to take young entrepreneurs between the ages of 19-35 to an accelerator programme before we link them to investors. But the innovation is that it is not only entrepreneurs in Ghana, but also those in the Netherlands.
“The objective is to support them so that they can come back home and start a business. Those selected will receive support from us, and we’ll link them to the right investors to support them with capital. We will help them with marketing, branding, and put them on our ‘Afric Seed’ platform where they can find investors,” she said.
The programme will select three start-up businesses from a list of seven finalists, who will then be enrolled on the Afric Seed platform and provided with the needed assistance.
By: Obed Attah Yeboah | thebftonline.com | Ghana
