MTN in partnership with Innohub has launched a 5-year aid plan called the ‘Enterprise Support Programme’ to support small businesses across all 16 regions of the country.
The programme seeks to address unemployment among the youth, serve as a source of income, enhance the livelihood of small business owners as well as nurture businesses to become sustainable. The programme is targetted at 500 youth-run businesses as well as ventures owned by disabled persons.
A little over GH₵1million has been allocated for commencement of the programme – from which each business will receive an amount of GH₵10,000, with a 12-month repayment period.
Beneficiaries under the Enterprise Support Programme will undergo training to equip them with basic entrepreneurial skills. They will also receive business development support, technical assistance and seed funding.
About 100 businesses in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Western Regions are set to be the first batch of beneficiaries for the programme.
The Chief Executive Officer of Innohub, Nelson Amo, stated that MTN Ghana and Innohub seek to achieve growth for numerous businesses through the Enterprise Support Programme, and look forward to creating over 2,000 jobs within five years.
“At the end of the day, what we want to see is how many of these businesses we supported are growing in revenues, in numbers and creating jobs. For us, job-creating is a cardinal point where we want to see success; so ultimately, we want this project to contribute to job creation. So if in 5 years we have 500 businesses supported, we should be able to count 2,000 jobs created at a minimum by these businesses.
“Before we give them the funding, there is capacity development as a business development support. All of these measures are to ensure the business owners understand what it takes to run a business; what it takes to grow the business; and what it takes to make sure you achieve the set objectives.
“Once you understand your growth plan, the money will now come in to help you live that growth plan or achieve the growth plan – but the money is not coming in a vacuum. Again, once you are on this programme it’s going to be a long-term relationship; so there is continuous engagement with each of these businesses.”
He added that: “The good thing about this project is that the money we will be giving out is basically recycled. Some people are going to pay it back, because it’s a credit facility and that goes into a revolving facility; and this will help us maintain the programme beyond the first 5 years MTN has committed to. So once the first 5 years are over, the funds received as repayment are going to help us sustain the project and bring more businesses into the facility”.
Economic Empowerment Adviser at MTN Ghana, Cynthia Mills, also added that most businesses in the country lack guidance and support; and as a result of this, the MTN Ghana Foundation decided to take it upon itself to help grow such businesses by assisting with training and seed capital.
“As a foundation, the board decided on this project because when we look at our ecosystem we have a lot of people who do businesses – but they lack the support and sometimes the training needed to scale up or bring the project to fruition. So that is why the MTN Ghana Foundation board approved this project to assist with training and also seed capital. And not just leave these businesses to struggle, but be with them to make sure they grow.”
Major targetted sectors for the Enterprise Support programme include agribusiness and fashion (Kente-weaving, especially by persons with disabilities), among others.
