Dr Abebe HaileGabriel, the FAO Representative to Ghana, said this would be around two per cent of the forecasted size of the labour force in 2030. Dr Abebe was speaking at a day’s forum on leveraging private sector investment for food security and nutrition in Ghana in the context of SDGs in Accra.

The forum organised jointly by FAO and the Private Enterprise Federation (PEF) is to create a shared understanding of the implications of the 2030 Agenda for food security and nutrition in Ghana and also create shared understanding of the important role of the private sector in contributing to the SDGs, with particular focus on how business contributions can accelerate progress in advancing Food Security and Nutrition.

It is also to provide a platform for business, investors, Government, and civil society organisations to explore new pathways for enhancing the impact of business contributions to achieving Food and Nutrition Security, inspire action in support of the SDGs by business – both as individual companies, enterprises and in partnership with others and identify priorities for support and collaboration.

He said the private sector would be crucial to delivering the SDGs and there were potentially over $2.3 trillion of business opportunities related to the sector.

The FAO Representative said the realisation of the business opportunities in the food system could also help deliver a wide-range of societal benefit including; job creation, benefit of food security, poverty alleviation, climate change mitigation and waste reduction and health outcomes.

He said according to a study conducted by the Business and Sustainable Development Commission in 2016, business opportunities in implementation of the SDGs related to food and agriculture could worth over $2.3 trillion annually for the private sector by 2030.

He said harnessing the above mentioned business opportunities would require new approaches and development of new business models. “Private sector engagement with public policy will be critical to fully capture the value of many of the SDGs opportunities to ensure the requisite policy tools were in place,” he added.

He said the private sector would also need to understand the potential opportunities emerging from the SDGs areas in their sector and how to better partner government, civil society organisations and other stakeholders on developing new solutions, thereby turning public-private partnership into business opportunities.

Dr Abebe said the two organisations organised the forum to create awareness on the many business opportunities that the private sector stands to gain from engaging in the implementation of the SDGs and more importantly in addressing hunger and malnutrition.

Ms Kosi Antwiwaa Yankey, the Acting Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), said it was important that the private sector g0t on board to know the business opportunities that were in the SDGs. “A lot of private sector players need to take advantage of the business opportunities and grow their businesses,” she added.

She said the year had been successful for the NBSSI, since government released some funds to boost business growth in the SME area and they have also been able to foster some relationships with other partners to support them develop and create about 400 plus jobs.

“We have also initiated and strengthened our apprentice programme and next year will pledge to do more for the small and medium enterprises. Mr Moses Agyemang, Senior Economist, PEF called on government together with stakeholders to endeavour to achieve the SDGs as compared to what the country achieved with the MDGs.

He called on stakeholders to address the challenges of sharing information with each other to grow their businesses.