WIDU Africa awards 15 entrepreneurs for creating sustainable businesses

WIDU Africa has awarded 15 entrepreneurs in Ghana for creating sustainable businesses and employment opportunities through the support of funds received from relatives in the diaspora.

The award winners were nominated in five categories, which included the Agribusiness Entrepreneur Award, the Young Entrepreneur Award, the Female Entrepreneur Award, the Digital Enterprise Award, and the Sustainable Award.

The WIDU Africa project was initiated by the German Cooperation to strengthen the connection and collaboration between Europe and Africa.

Speaking at the WIDU Ghana Awards Gala, the country director of GIZ Ghana, Regina Bauerochse Barbosa, said the WIDU project has contributed to the economic development of the country by supporting 930 businesses financially, of which 44% were owned by women.

“The results and successes of the WIDU project are remarkable. To date, 950 businesses across Ghana have benefited from financial support, tailored business coaching, and networking. €1.35 million of private investment have been made and €1.35 million of direct grants have been disbursed to businesses,” she said.

“The combination of financial support through the diaspora and WIDU, together with the business coaching, has allowed entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into reality,” the country director of GIZ added.

Meanwhile, the German ambassador to Ghana, Daniel Krull, who also spoke at the event, urged Ghanaians to take advantage of the WIDU platform to create more employment opportunities. This, he said, will contribute to the economic growth of the country.

He said: “We are very proud as a government to be able to support and leverage these remittances and to help make these businesses more successful, so I think it’s a very nice cooperation between private investors and the government, so we should do more.”

“It’s about Ghanaians investing in their own country, and that is what we would like to encourage and support, and that is what we are aiming for to bring investment capital to Ghana and to help create jobs and sustainable jobs for people and families in this country,” Krull said.

The regional coordinator for employment promotion with the diaspora WIDU.africa platform also added that WIDU.africa aims to redirect a proportion of diaspora remittances to Africa into microbusinesses to ensure access to finance for entrepreneurs.

“Remittances have played a massive part in the local economy all over Africa, and making this link between those remittances and sustainable employment has always been the challenge to turn those remittances that were consumed as getting money to deal with everyday expenses into meaningful support that can enable entrepreneurs here to start and sustain their businesses,” he said.

“In the case of Ghana, we’re talking about €1.3 million in remittances that have come to Ghana and that’s been matched by the German government through the WIDU grants. So on a wider scale, we’ve supported, like, I think, about 4,000 entrepreneurs, and those remittances go up to €4 million …We have 28,000 entrepreneurs registered on our platform today,” he added.

Kwesi Kwame Anokye received GHC15,000 as the first agribusiness entrepreneur, Ebenezer Paul Mensah received GHC15,000 as the first young entrepreneur and Ama Duncan was given GHC15,000 as the first female entrepreneur.

Seeta Semenu

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