The CAMFED Ghana-Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program Annual Research and Learning Summit took place at the Conference Hall of the Centre for African Wetlands, University of Ghana, on Thursday, June 24, 2021. The summit adopted a blended approach making it possible for majority of participants to attend virtually in response to COVID-19 safety protocols. The summit which was hosted by CAMFED Ghana was on the theme “Supporting young women’s enterprises to thrive during and post COVID-19: What will work?”
This year’s summit is the eighth in the series since the first in 2014 and is hosted under the aegis of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program, a 10-year partnership between the Mastercard Foundation and CAMFED Ghana. It brought entrepreneurs, business finance and fintech experts, representatives from standards and regulatory bodies, government institutions, researchers and policymakers, as well as civil society, together to discuss research findings on the effects of COVID-19 on Ghanaian enterprises in general, and female-owned enterprises in particular; new business opportunities that enterprises can tap into; the range of support that has been extended to enterprises; as well as innovative ideas that will enhance the growth and success of enterprises, particularly female-owned, during and post COVID-19 era.
There were presentations on the Ghana Statistical Service Business Tracker Surveys, a collaborative effort among the Ghana Statistical Service, UNDP and the World Bank to provide critical information to the government, development partners and other organizations on the effects of the pandemic on Ghanaian firms. There was also a presentation on CAMFED’s Entrepreneurship Survey, and on the Rapid Market Assessment (RMA).
The RMA is a collaborative study involving ILO Labs, CAMFED Ghana and the Mastercard Foundation. The key objective of this study is to explore opportunities in agricultural value chains in northern Ghana that can support young women to start or grow agricultural-related businesses, thereby creating decent jobs for themselves and others. The RMA serves two critical functions – to select two value chains with strong potential to create entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for young women in northern Ghana, and to identify the key constraints within these value chains and their wider market systems – exploring their possible root causes and proposing potential interventions to address them for the benefit of young women.
A significant activity at the summit was a joint launch of the report on the RMA by Sally Ofori Yeboah, Kafui Mills-Odoi and Steve Hartrich, representatives of CAMFED Ghana, Mastercard Foundation and ILO Labs respectively. This was followed by a moderated panel discussion on the theme by a six-member panel including: Mabruka Hamza Mogtari, a final year student of the University of Ghana and a young entrepreneur; Priscilla Akoto-Bamfo, Founder and CEO of Shepherd’s Rice Mills; Mawusi Nudekor Awity, Executive Director of the National Vocational Training Institute; Maria Aba Lovelace-Johnson, Head of Food Enforcement Department of the Food and Drugs Authority; Jacqueline Ruby Sackitey, an experienced entrepreneur and manager of JACQUIS Enterprise; and Liana Tamakloe-Ekuadzi, Program Manager at MEST.
Highlights/key points from the presentations, remarks and panel discussions at the summit included the following:
- Findings from the three research presentations demonstrate/justify the need to design and implement programs based on empirical primary data. This helps to ensure that interventions address the felt need of beneficiaries. Ongoing surveys also help to modify program implementation plans where necessary.
- There is the need to channel more business development support to women’s enterprises and expand their access to financial services to enable the enterprises to grow and thrive.
- It is important to explore opportunities for young women to benefit from an apprenticeship scheme with existing, well-established entrepreneurs. This would enable them to learn on-the-job skills and experience, which would help them to be more likely to succeed as entrepreneurs.
- There is a need to promote role modelling and mentoring to support young women entrepreneurs.
- The agriculture value chain provides enormous opportunities for young Ghanaians. Fully leveraged, the sector has the potential to become the biggest employer of young people and a major contributor to the country’s GDP.
- Although groundnuts processing and trading are important sources of income for women, especially during the lean season when there is little farming activity, they face a number of barriers and challenges in the production, processing and trading of the commodity.
- Young women entrepreneurs require time-saving inputs and technologies to succeed.
- It is imperative to challenge and sensitise local communities and leaders to harmful gender norms and stereotypes that impede female entrepreneurship.
- There is a call to share findings from the RMA report more broadly with partners and other external audience.
- The submissions by panellists demonstrate the importance of the annual research and learning summit as an important platform for generating ideas and forging partnerships in support of young women’s enterprises and job creation. The summits have been praised for providing key platforms for knowledge sharing and policy-related conversations on issues that affect young people, not only in Ghana but on the African continent.
