MTN Foundation is investing GHC1.3 million in 140 micro enterprises across three regions under its economic empowerment portfolio. Dubbed ‘Economic Empowerment Project,’ the five-year project seeks to grow businesses through business management training and financial assistance. The beneficiaries drawn from the Greater Accra, Western and Ashanti Regions have undergone two months of training in business development, financial management and social media marketing. They have received financial packages ranging between GHC 5,000 to GHC 10,000 to support their businesses after a rigorous interview conducted by an independent jury. Twenty-seven beneficiaries in the Ashanti region made up of women, youth and differently-abled, have been unveiled by the Foundation at a ceremony in Kumasi during which they received their packages. Madam Cynthia Mills, Economic Empowerment Advisor of MTN Foundation, said the project was in response to frequent requests received by the Foundation from individual entrepreneurs seeking financial assistance to grow their businesses. She said the Board after endorsing the initiative to support such entrepreneurs, decided to target the three regions for the first year and extend it to other regions subsequently. The maiden beneficiaries, she noted, formed the first phase of the project, which would be used to improve engagements with future beneficiaries in the years ahead. The expectation is that the beneficiaries would be able to expand their businesses and create employment opportunities for others. ‘The motivation is to create businesses because there is a lot of unemployment in Ghana and that is the reason we considered youth, women and differently-abled persons who most of the time, do not get the support to scale up their businesses,’ she stated. She advised them to make good use of the funds to achieve the desired outcomes, saying that, the Foundation would monitor how they applied the funds. The beneficiaries thanked the MTN Foundation for supporting them and also exposing them to the appropriate ways of running their businesses to make them profitable. They pledged to work hard to make their businesses impactful on the lives of others.

Source: Ghana News Agency