Dubbed: Women SME Innovation Programme – Digitalise for Jobs (D4J), the project seeks to equip SMEs to fully leverage the potential of digitalisation and to better organise their business information.

It also intends to support them with efficient records keeping and financial management practices to facilitate their access to finance, expand their customer base and turnover, and develop new products and services.

The project is being implemented by the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) with the support of Invest for Jobs, an initiative of the German Development Agency (GIZ).

The launch marks the beginning of the second phase of the project.

Online visibility

Launching the project in Accra on October 13, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, stated that SMEs would be trained to build their online visibility through company-owned websites and social media to reach more clients.

She said the goal of the project was to support the SMEs’ sustainable growth, by creating more decent jobs.

“Digitalisation refers to enabling, improving, and transforming business operations, functions, models, and processes, by leveraging digital tools,” she said.

The CEO explained that digitalisation could help businesses improve their operations, offer quality products, understand and meet international export standards and encourage exceptional customer service.

“And so, I also believe this will help increase the efficiency and competitiveness of these SMEs as the intervention will promote access to knowledge, digital tools, and expertise in the field of digitalisation and innovation management challenges.

“It will also ensure that women-owned and led SMEs grow and create jobs for Ghanaians,” she said.

Adopt digital methods

Mrs Yankey-Ayeh said the GEA, over the years, had encouraged SMEs, especially women-owned, to adopt digital methods to augment business growth and competitiveness.

So far, she noted, more than US$11 million had been utilised to train or support over 10,000 women entrepreneurs.

“We are happy that the primary objective for the second phase of this project is to equip and provide capacity building to our women-owned SMEs on the different aspects of digitalisation in order to aid their businesses grow and penetrate diverse markets,” she added.

Remain competitive

The Team Leader of Invest for Jobs at GIZ Ghana, John Duti, explained that if SMEs were to remain competitive in the global world, they had no choice but to digitalise.

He said focusing on women owned and led enterprises represented an opportunity to reduce the digital gender gap which brought social and economic benefits for the whole country, given the significant role of women and their enterprises for the country’s socio-economic development.

“Female empowerment is a powerful tool to make everybody’s life richer and successful,” Mr Duti asserted.

He said following a successful launch of the programme, the call for applications would be opened until the end of October 2022.