The minister-nominee for the newly created Investment and Business Development Ministry, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, says government plans to provide resources to encourage more women to own and manage businesses.
According to him, government’s intervention will see 60 per cent of the country’s top entrepreneurs being women within the next 5 years.
Speaking during his vetting before Parliament’s Appointment Committee on Tuesday [February 7, 2017], he said he will ensure a school incubator programme is launched to accommodate more female students who will be trained and equipped with skills to develop business ideas and also receive support to actualize those ideas.
“We intend to roll out a school incubator programme and talent hunting in various tertiary institutions. We intend to make women form not less than 60 per cent of those targets, we help them plot projects that we turn into business plans and then support the business plans to incubate and grow.”
“Hopefully, within 4 to 5 years, 60% of top entrepreneurs in Ghana will be women,” he said.
According to him, Ghana’s private sector could help address key issues such as unemployment in the country, and therefore he intends to effectively manage the sector to attract more foreign investments to speed up the country’s growth.
He noted that, other key programmes he will embark upon as a minister will be a returnee programme to encourage Ghanaians in the diaspora to return and invest in the country.
He said his Ministry; which is one of the new creations of the Akufo-Addo-led administration, will coordinate with other relevant agencies and the ministry of trade to ensure a conducive climate for local businesses.
Mr. Awal Mohammed told Citi News in an earlier interview that, he will focus mainly on infrastructure, manufacturing, and ICT in order to develop the country’s business environment.
He said, “The young people, boys and girls of this country need jobs; we can only do that through the private sector initiatives. We need to coordinate all the investments coming into this country; infrastructure, manufacturing in ICT and in services.”
He said there were many challenges bedeviling the private sector in the country, and he will be ready to help alleviate their challenges.
“We need to ensure that we have a lot of investments. The private sector has a lot of problems such as the lack of finance and capacity. So we need to make sure that we help the businesses have access to funding and then let them apply modern business practices and technology by which they can improve, expand and employ a lot of people.”
The nominee, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, is the former Managing Director of Graphic Communications Group Limited and Chase Petroleum. He is a 55-year-entrepreneur and a marketer.
He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Marble Communications Group Limited, publishers of The Finder Group of Newspapers, HMW printers, Marble Consultants and Marble Developers.
He was adjudged the ‘Marketing Man of the Year” in 2009, and currently holds three master’s degrees in various disciplines from different universities.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
