The call was made upon the completion of a process by the NEIP to select a private sector implementing partner to administer the $10 million initial fund for the initiative.

Consequently, the private sector partner, the African Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Organisation, in collaboration with the NEIP Secretariat and the Ministry of Private Sector Development, has created an online portal for receiving applications between November 2, 2017 and December 3, 2017.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NEIP, Mr John Kumah, who announced this at a press launch in Accra yesterday, said existing businesses or people with innovative business ideas could receive between GH¢10,000 and GH¢100,000 in grants and/or soft loans to implement their business plans.

The occasion was also used to launch the National Entrepreneurship and SME Week which seeks to educate the public on the NEIP.

All applicants would also benefit from a free NEIP business training that would enable them to manage their businesses in line with good governance principles, Mr Kumah said.

The China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) is also partnering the African SME Organisation to evaluate the applications, as well as implement key models under the NEIP.

About NEIP

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, launched the NEIP in July this year with a $10 million seed fund, and the private sector partner is required to leverage the fund to raise additional $100 million funding for the project which is expected to deliver about one million jobs.

The NEIP, under the auspices of the Ministry of Business Development, is one of the flagship initiatives of President Akufo-Addo’s government which is aimed at supporting young entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.

The NEIP has the objective of providing an integrated national support for startups and small businesses focusing on the provision of business development services, business incubators and funding.

Significance

Mr Kumah said the NEIP was premised on the government’s conviction that the way out of the unemployment situation was entrepreneurship, saying that: “The NEIP has, therefore, come as a solution to this national youth unemployment challenge.”

The NEIP CEO said one of the reasons for selecting the private sector implementers of the programme was to build strong support for the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Ghana which would include producers, marketers, buyers and other actors within the business value chain.

Procedure

The CEO of the African SME Organisation, Mr Yaw Asamoah, who presented the overview of the NEIP and what they were bringing on board to help achieve objectives of the plan said they were expecting about 2,000 applications, out of which about 500 finalists would be selected.

According to him, there would be official followups on beneficiaries to ensure that they did not only receive support but that they stuck to their business plans.

Mr Asamoah said an African Case Clearing House where business cases in Ghana and other parts of Africa would be codified to provide lessons and guide businesses and academia would also be set up.

Apart from organizing business plan competition The National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP) has opened its doors to applications for business support, grants and soft loans as it starts the implementation of a $10 million fund in tertiary and senior high schools, the NEIP will also support 5,000 small businesses to digitise their operations (go online), which will include their presence on the Internet, as well as offer electronic payments such as electronic cards and mobile money options.