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The EU will continue to support Ghana in private sector and skills development – Marta Brignore

Marta Brignore, head of the Macro-Economic and Trade Sector of the European Union to Ghana has reiterated the Union’s support of Ghana’s private sector.

Martha Brignore

She said the EU is poised to continue this support through the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) project.

She said the focus of the project on Ashanti and Western regions was because they were areas of departure, transit and return of migrants.

“The EU is Ghana’s key partner in the support of the private sector and skills development. “For these reasons, the EU developed a specific approach to facilitate the development of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and to boost the transition to green and climate-resilient economies, “she said.

She said SNV and UNCDF had been identified as main partners for implementation of the Green project due to their specific technical knowledge and their presence in both regions.

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Ms Brignore said the project had been successful, saying “GrEEn is a comprehensive programme and we are satisfied and looking forward to continuing implementation until the end of 2023.”

The project works with local government authorities and the private sector to address root causes of irregular migration through green and climate-resilient local economic development in the Ashanti and Western regions.

Under the project, 71,468 people had access to digital financial services in the two regions, out of which 32,500 were youth and 31,600, women.

Ms Arianna Gasparri, Technical Specialist of the UNCDF said it had driven mobile wallet uptake and usage of services with huge opportunities to deliver added services through the use of phones. The project has also led to clients’ improvement in skills and capacities.

She said UNCDF aimed at increasing access to and usage of financial services adapted to the needs of the target audience through financial education, financial services, remittance-linked services, crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending.

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“We work with districts and expand access points, create dynamism in the financial ecosystem at the local level, and offer a comprehensive range of financial services such as payments, savings, loans, financial literacy, and other innovative options,” she said.

That, she stated, was done through stakeholders’ engagement and designed, tested and scaled-up accessible, affordable financial inclusion platforms for beneficiaries to optimise their importance for socio-economic development.

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