By Godwill Arthur-Mensah, GNA
Accra, Oct. 15, GNA – Mr Ignatius
Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Monday launched
the Ghana Online Mall to provide digital platform for small and medium-scale
enterprises to market their goods and services to local and international
markets.
He said the Government would support 10,000
businesses with full directory, product images and brief videos onto the
digital platform from October to December this year under the first phase of
the project and that 8,000 jobs were expected to be created in a year.
Ghana Online Mall is a business development
and marketing digital platform to help small and medium-scale enterprises to
use technology to market their products and services to the global community.
The online platform comprised four digital
platforms namely; Ghana Online Mall, Africa Online Mall, NEIP e-Mall and NEIP
Marketplace.
It will be a business directory for all
businesses that will be hooked onto the platform to trade among themselves,
showcase and sell their products to the global community.
Interested persons and businesses could visit
the homepage of the digital platform through www.ghanaonline.com to register
their businesses, market their goods and services for free, as well as identify
potential businesses for investment relationship and funding.
The platform, an initiative of the Ministry of
Business Development and the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan
(NEIP), will also help start-ups and small and medium-scale enterprises to
access funding and global market as 500,000 businesses are expected to be
hooked onto the platform in a year.
It forms part of the NEIP’s mandate to provide
three key support services to entrepreneurship ecosystem in Ghana-Business
Advisory Services, Access to Funding and Access to Local and International
Market.
Mr Baffour-Awuah, who launched the digital
platform at a ceremony in Accra, commended the Ministry of Business Development
and NEIP for the initiative and encouraged individuals and businesses to
patronise the platform to boost their businesses and make life more
comfortable.
He said as the Government was implementing the
industrialisation agenda with emphasis on value addition to raw materials, the
online mall would afford small and medium enterprises to showcase their
products and services to the wider market.
“This will further boost trade with other
African countries within the context of the Continental Free Trade Area
Agreement signed by 50 African countries this year,” he said.
“In addition, the online mall platform, which
will be a pool of service providers with diverse backgrounds, is an avenue for
job creation, especially for our students, unemployed graduates, artisans, and
all those who can offer some kind of services in the comfort of their homes.
8,000 jobs are expected to be created in the first 12 months.”
He said the Nana Akufo-Addo-led Government had
embarked on digital transformation agenda, which would result in the formalisation
of the national economy.
That, he said, was being achieved through the
National Identification Card (Ghana Card), National Digital Addressing System,
Paperless Ports System and Mobile Money Interoperability System to ensure
financial inclusion.
He said over the past one year, through the
Presidential Business Support Programme (PBSP), 7,000 businesses had received
business advisory services from the NEIP, while 1,350 individuals received
start-up capital nationwide.
He said about 95 per cent of beneficiaries
under the PBSP had their accounts credited.
Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, the Minister of
Business Development, said last year the Ministry and the NEIP trained 7,000
youth giving them sufficient technical advisory services while funding had been
given to 1,350 businesses as start-up capital.
He said the country’s economy would only
develop if the skills and competencies of the people were developed and, thus,
urged Ghanaian businesses to add value to their raw materials, brand and
package them to meet international standards to compete favourably.
He admonished businesses that would be hooked
onto the platform to be disciplined so as to enjoy the about 2.3 trillion
African market economy to accelerate national growth.
Dr Awal said in view of the global village
economy, it was easy to trade online and that government would continue to
create conducive ecosystem for businesses to thrive.
He announced that next year government would
support 5,000 young entrepreneurs with financial services aimed at boosting
local entrepreneurship.
GNA