Nkabom targets 55,000 agri-food jobs in 10 years

…private sector urged to open doors to youth-led SMEs

By Kingsley Webora TANKEH

The Nkabom Venture Quest Bootcamp aims to empower 3,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana’s agri-food ecosystem to create 55,000 jobs in 10 years, the Director of Secretariat of the Nkabom Collaborative, Pierre Brunache, has disclosed.

Speaking at the launch of the Cohort 2 and Closeout of Cohort 1 of the initiative at the University of Ghana Business School in Accra, Mr. Brunache noted Ghana’s agri-food is currently valued at US$10 billion, representing 36 percent of GDP, and is expected to surge to US$13 billion in 5 years. According to him, this presents an unprecedented opportunity to create jobs through the empowerment of SMEs as primary engine of economic growth.

The Nkabom initiative is a collaborative effort of the Mastercard Foundation, the University of Ghana, McGill University in Canada and other local partner institutions. Cohort 1 started with 161 candidates, which were later scaled down to 100 and now 51 candidates have successfully completed the programme. Cohort 2 is targeting 200 students.

Considering that 45 percent of the Ghanaian workforce is in the agriculture value chain, Mr. Brunache further noted that nutrition and sustainable food systems are profitable and capable of absorbing the teaming youth. “We can create as many jobs as possible in the nutrition and agri-food systems in Ghana,” Mr. Brunache told the gathering at the University of Ghana Business School (UGBS).

Mr. Brunache therefore appealed to the private sector to eliminate the barrier of “whom you know” that often keeps small scale youth producers out of formal supply chains, recounting an incident where programme officers accompanied a young entrepreneur to secure a procurement deal at a hotel.

That, Mr Brunache argued, must be replicated at scale to empower SMEs to create jobs. “The youth is ready, the youth is hungry. They are willing to take the risk. Private sector, give the youth a chance. If they have products, allow them to come to your procurement manager, your restaurant owner, your hotel owner, your caterer. Buy from the youth,” he advised.

He noted that if citizens are going to eat around the clock, under government’s 24-hour economy, farmers will need to produce more, aggregators will aggregate more, and market access for young actors will become an urgent economic necessity.

Mr. Brunache challenged the view that Ghana’s growth rests primarily on the success of big corporations, citing the US as an epitome of the impact of SMEs on economic growth. “The economy of the United States, the largest economy in the world. It’s not Google, Amazon and Apple that make the U.S. what it is now. It’s small companies. You have to emphasise SMEs, because it’s the SME that eventually is going to grow to become large companies,” he noted.

Describing small businesses as “the lung, the heartbeat of the nation,” he argued that the agricultural value chain in Ghana is populated by SMEs, presenting a great opportunity for growth, unlike the big companies which only dominate in telecoms, oil and gas or finance sectors.

Therefore, he urged government to create policies that allow SMEs access to guarantees, alleviate collateral demands and explore using remittance flows as collateral for SME lending. “We are talking about seeing where you can use remittances for growth, how you can use remittances as collateral for SMEs,” he noted.

In a similar development, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Joan Selasie Ahiawordor, brought the Student Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development (SEED) programme to the auditorium full of students from various universities, encouraging them to take advantage and be a part of it. “It seeks to ensure that entrepreneurship development begins directly on our campuses,” she stated.

SEED is aimed at turning students into job creators. Led by NEIP and in partnership with National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), SEED was launched earlier this month. The initiative will provide entrepreneurship training, mentorship, business advisory support, investment readiness preparation and access to funding for student-led ventures. Additionally, SEED will strengthen innovation hubs within universities, enabling them to offer direct support to young businesses.

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