Since December 2021, the Green Economy Ghana project has provided vocational and entrepreneurship skills in the green and circular economy space to about 400 young people.

More specifically in plastic waste management, sustainable forestry management and organic waste management.

For those who have completed the theoretical and practical training at various TVET centres of YMCA Accra, Koforidua Technical University and The Forestry Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG-Kumasi), two possibilities are offered; Green Entrepreneurship Training for students interested in starting their own business and Job Search Support for those wishing to find a job in an established company.

Green Entrepreneurship training
The Green Economy Ghana is working with its partner organisations Social Enterprise Ghana, Waste or Create, Eastern Tech Hub and Women Haven Africa to provide incubation support to young people who want to start their green businesses.

The training which covered the various value chains of plastic waste management, organic waste management and sustainable forestry management took place in Eastern, Ashanti and Greater Accra Regions and had about 75 young people supported in developing their green businesses.

The young people were trained on different topics including Opportunity Identification and Green Business Model Identification, Prototyping and Customer Acquisition, Business Team Formation and Dynamics, Financing Green Start-ups, Financial Management, etc

Entrepreneurship Training

Edith Aseiduwa Akoto a trainee and entrepreneur in cashew seedling production said the entrepreneurship training has helped her a lot, especially with cashbook. According to her, she is able to manage her finances, improve her customer relationship and increase her customer base.

She also thanked the supporting partners and organization as well as the European Union for the opportunity given her.

Ira Osei Akoto, the Hub Manager at Women haven Africa says the training was quite comprehensive and affords the opportunity to the young people to kick start their green ventures and calls on investors and financial institutions as well as government to provide start-up kits to the young people to start and grow their businesses as green businesses have great job creation potentials.

Job Fair and Exhibition

On July 27, YMCA organised a Job Fair on Plastic Waste Management with participation from more than 50 green practitioners, employers and trainees to connect for job opportunities.

This also afforded the opportunity to some green businesses to showcase their products and services.

Background

The European Union Archipelago Programme is a 4-year programme, funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund (EUTF), whose main objective is to strengthen the employability of young people in supporting them in job creation in the Sahel and Lake Chad countries (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Mauritanian, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal).

The project is being implemented by a five-member consortium including Inclusive Business Sweden as the lead, YMCA Ghana, Social Enterprise Ghana, Ghana Sweden Chamber of Commerce and Sweden West Africa Business Association as associate members.