The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Bank for Africa (UBA) have entered into a pact to support sustainable growth of Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana.
The support, including financial assistance (loans), capacity building and provision of advisory services to the MSMEs are to solve the challenges that they faced and help stimulate growth.
The long-term partnership would focus on supporting MSMEs of women, youth and persons with disabilities, with a special attention on entrepreneurs helping solve climate change issues.
It is to also make the beneficiary MSMEs contribute to increased domestic revenue by roping them into the tax net through formalisation of their businesses, reduce their environmental footprint, and provide sustainable income-earning jobs to people, especially the youth.
UNDP and UBA also seek to increase Ghana’s access to climate financing schemes and inflows from various funding sources in support of the country’s climate mitigation and adaptation measures through their agreement.
Dr Angela Lusigi, the UNDP Country Representative for Ghana, and Mr Chris Ofikulu, Managing Director, UBA Ghana, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Accra on Thursday, to affirm their partnership.
Mr Ofikulu, who also is the Regional Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of UBA West Africa, explained that collaborating with UNDP demonstrated the Bank’s commitment to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The commitment on supporting the attainment of the SDGs, he said had a particular focus on providing custom financial solutions and growth opportunities for businesses of all sizes to facilitate inter and intra-African trade.
He said that by empowering women entrepreneurs, young innovators, and individuals from underserved communities to participate fully in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, “we can unlock a wealth of untapped potential and drive sustainable and equitable growth.”
There would be tracking and measuring of the impact of the joint support to the MSMEs to ensure that tangible progress was been made towards project objectives with continuous improvement for effectiveness, Mr Ofikulu noted.
Dr Lusigi noted that “UNDP is working to influence the flow of resources towards development by encouraging investors and businesses of all sizes to embed the SDGs and Climate action into their analytics, decision making and business practices.”
The UNDP Country Representative said the partnership served as a first step in crystalising a joint vision, to create an enabling environment for MSMEs to thrive and help close the sustainable financing gap for development in Ghana.
She noted that they had over the years worked closely with young innovators and disbursed seed funding of about US$500,000 to 42 young innovators and remained committed to doing more.
Beneficiary MSMEs would receive a tailored training in corporate governance, branding, marketing, financial support, as well as product design and development to enable easier access to markets for their products and services.
They would also be supported with energy efficiency audits and remedial actions to minimize their carbon footprints, all aimed at promoting inclusive, resilient and green entrepreneurship.
To this end, the implementation of the pact would see the leveraging of UNDP’s expertise in working with MSMEs and innovators, and UBA Ghana’s
expertise in supporting businesses to achieve set goals.