Tapping into the Economic Potential of Women Entrepreneurs

Women entrepreneurs

Accra, November 29, 2017//-Ghana’s economic success story can never be told without the contribution of its hard working women entrepreneurs operating in all sectors of the economy.

From Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to large scale enterprises, women entrepreneurs are competing with their male counterparts for businesses.

As estimated by the World Bank, MSMEs contribute about 70 percent of Ghana’s GDP and account for about 92 percent of businesses in Ghana. Out of these enterprises, 44 percent are owned by women, according to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID),  the United States Government agency which is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid.

Despite these impressive figures, there exist visible gender gaps in women’s economic participation and opportunity. Globally, at the current pace of change, it will take 170 years to close the economic gender gap, according to a 2016 report by the World Economic Forum.  Ghana is ranked 59th out of 144 countries in the 2016 World Economic Forum Gender Gap Report, and 10th out of 25 ranked in the Sub-Saharan Africa region.

Similarly, the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel (UNHLP) Report  on Women’s Economic Empowerment has identified seven key drivers to enable transformation for women.

The report completed in March 2017 laid out a Call for Action to be taken by governments, private sector, civil society and academia to ensure economic gains for women worldwide.

This shared global agenda seeks to ‘accelerate women’s economic participation and empowerment in support of implementing the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its promise to ‘leave no one behind’, particularly the most marginalized women at the bottom of the pyramid.

Despite this growing awareness, and the fact that women-owned businesses represent a strong potential source of future economic growth, innovation and job creation, the barriers to women’s entrepreneurship are numerous.

Ghanaian women entrepreneurs still lag behind men, with women owned businesses that tend to be smaller, are home based and are often disadvantaged in their access to credit, resources and assets.

These constraints are rooted in unaddressed gender inequalities in the Ghanaian society, officials of Ghana’s National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), a non-profit public sector organisation under the Ministry of Trade & Industry, said.

In Ghana, women are 1.7 times more likely to be in casual work (without contracts or job security) than men, while about 27 per cent of men are in salaried jobs compared with 9 per cent women.

Most women find themselves working within the informal sector, often under precarious work conditions, with little or no form of health insurance or pension. Even though the country’s labour laws and policies are directed at addressing these inequalities, poor implementation of said policies and laws prevent women from benefiting from their economic participation.

Indeed, despite the existence of a strong policy architecture within the West African region, progress towards women’s economic empowerment has been slow.

Overall, women earn less than men due to the employment options available to women. The low wages of women can be largely attributed to the emphasis on “agriculture and informality as a share of female employment”.

Ghana has recently developed a National Gender Policy (NGP) with strategic actions for implementation. The goal of the NGP is to mainstream gender equality and women’s empowerment concerns into the national development process, in order to improve the social, legal, civic and political economic and cultural conditions of the people of Ghana.

One of the key strategies identified to help achieve gender parity is to increase the economic opportunities for women in Ghana. Although there has been progress in closing the gender inequalities in education and health, there is still much to do to achieve the full and equal participation of women in society and in the economy.

An essential starting point for this is the creation of an enabling environment for inclusive growth and sustainable development.

This can be achieved by engendering macro-economic, micro-economic, and trade policies as well as the legal and regulatory frameworks to address the basic needs of women and support female  entrepreneurship in the formal and informal sectors.

It is therefore important to provide a platform and network to discuss, review, strategize and mobilize the requisite resources to implement relevant projects and programmes to ensure the development, growth and sustainability of women-owned enterprises in Ghana.

At the recent 72nd session of the UN General Assembly, a roundtable dialogue organized by the Group of Champions on Women’s Economic Empowerment led by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, urged action to advance women’s economic empowerment.

During related sessions Ghana was highlighted as the African Union Gender Champion for 2017 and the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection,  Otiko Afisa Djaba further indicated the country’s commitment to the Call to Action.

NBSSI Commitment

The UN Call to Action has identified seven drivers of change for women’s economic empowerment.

The Executive Director of the NBSSI, Ms. Kosi Yankey explained: “The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) is responding to the Call to Action, in keeping with its mandate and with a specific goal focused on transforming the business environment to strengthen women entrepreneurs across Ghana”.

“As the apex governmental body for the promotion and development of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) the NBSSI established the Women Entrepreneurship Development Department (WEDD) with the aim to promote and develop women entrepreneurs in Ghana”.

The long-term goal is for MSMEs to maximize their contribution to the country’s economic and social development with respect to production, income distribution and employment and the closer integration of women and people in rural areas into the national economy, she added.

NBSSI will host the Ghana Women Entrepreneurship Summit (GWES) bringing key stakeholders and international partners together to define actions in the public and private sector to create an enabling environment for women owned businesses, highlight effective approaches taken across the world to resolve constraints and challenges, and to spearhead partnerships to accelerate growth and strengthen WBEs contribution to the economy, Ms Yankey emphasised.

 Summit Focus & Objectives

 The Director of Women Entrepreneurship Development Department of NBSSI, Madam Habiba Sumani said: “NBSSI is excited to host the first Ghana Women Entrepreneurship Summit (GWES), which will take place in March 2018”.

The over two days summit will bring together leaders from the government, regulatory bodies, research and academic institutions, development partners, Non-governmental Organizations, women entrepreneurs, and prospective entrepreneurs, Civil Society and the Media to find effective ways to resolve challenges and systemic constraints that prevent women’s full and equal participation, in Ghana’s economy.

 Madam Sumani added that the summit would also strengthen the contribution of women in Ghana’s economy, assess the progress to date in economic empowerment of women, build sustainable networks to bring resources to women entrepreneurs, advocate for change against negative social norms that impede the progress of women, and open a new path using technology to ensure their advancement and economic liberalization.

“We are also going to use the summit to tap into the entrepreneurial skills and potential of the women entrepreneurs in the country”.

The ultimate objective of the GWES is to craft Ghana’s Call to Action on innovative ways to harness the untapped potential of women entrepreneurs contributing to job creation and economic growth.

While the specific objectives of the summit are to: develop joint gender biased public policy proposals to Government of Ghana to advance women business enterprises (WBEs); create an enabling business environment focused on empowering women business organisations to increase incomes and create jobs; demonstrate the use of technology to innovate, grow and enhance business operations; and provide a platform to share success stories and experiences, best practices and to formulate strategies to resolve challenges that face women entrepreneurs in Ghana.

Pre-summit Activities

Focus Group consultations will be held to clearly articulate constraints, challenges and opportunities for relevant sectors where WBEs operate across Ghana.

Targeted sectors will include: agriculture & Food Processing; technology; service industries; creative Industries; manufacturing; extractive Industries; and informal commercial traders

These sessions, according to the organisers would focus on priority issues negatively impacting WBEs in target sectors; targets of opportunity to strengthen WBEs (Training/Pitching etc.); and outline actions for the Summit.

The summit will be organized around a series of panel talks, seminars and technical working sessions tackling the constraints facing women owned business in various supply chains and approaches that have successfully impacted women entrepreneurs.

The sessions will also review best practice approaches taken by local and international partners, which serve to inform new approaches for replication in Ghana. In addition, an exhibition area will allow for women business to showcase their products.

Some of the topics to be discussed at the summit include: trade Policies required to enable and enhance the business environment; training on Business Development Services; capacity building to introduce new business tools and systems; marketing &branding; access to finance; access to markets to broaden the customer base; and business networking organisations.

Furthermore, the summit also aims to mobilise resources and create partnerships to accelerate the promotion, growth and development of women entrepreneurs in the West African second largest economy.

The success of this initiative requires a shared commitment and partnership of key stakeholders. To this end, the NBSSI executive director and her team are positioned to work with stakeholders in the public and private sector to address a number of these drivers to lead and effect change, by implementing the right policies to promote the inclusive growth and women’s economic empowerment and by improving public sector practices in employment and procurement.

From these key stakeholders, they aim to identify Drivers of Change to be addressed and actions to enable women entrepreneurs in ways that are tangible, measurable and effective.

As noted in the Call to Action, the work to build women’s economic empowerment seeks to ‘leave no one behind’, particularly the most marginalized informal sector women at the base of the pyramid.

The expected outcomes of the summit will include to create a platform for connecting women entrepreneurs and providing information, mentoring, training, and support services; increased engagement of WBEs, connect the women owned businesses to markets; and improved connections created among women entrepreneurs.

All these are also expected  to increased the contribution of Ghanaian women entrepreneurs in job creation and economic growth; increased exposure for women entrepreneurs for marketing and networking; and enhance women entrepreneurs’ knowledge.

By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, African Eye Report

Email: mk68008@gmail.com

 

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