Ghana says carefully analyzing human skills for investors’ needs

The Ghana government says it plans to develop the human skills that will meet the workforce requirement of investors.

According to a Minister of State, Ghana is devising plans for educational institutions to meet those requirements of investors mostly in the private sector.

“…the government is carefully analysing the skills that investors were looking for in the country’s workforce, and was devising plans for Ghana’s educational institutions to meet those requirements,” Trade Minister, Haruna Iddrisu said at a high-level UN Trade Ministers event held in Geneva.

The event was hosted by the UNCTAD Investment, Enterprise and Development Commission and it focused on enhancing entrepreneurship in poor countries.

According to an UNCTAD news release May 6, 2013, the Ghanaian Trade Minister said the country was dedicated to the creation of an environment that encouraged the private sector and entrepreneurship.

“There was a special focus on fostering SMEs,” Mr Iddrisu said, as they offered promise for the employment of young people, for the equal advancement of women, and for sustained and well-balanced economic growth.

He also said steps were being taken by government to make financing more easily available to those with viable business ideas, particularly the youth.

Mr. Iddrisu stated that another focus was science and technology, and that the country had carried out, with UNCTAD, a review of science and technology policies.

Making his remarks, James Zhan, Director of UNCTAD’s Division on Investment and Enterprise, said that SMEs contributed substantially to national economies and to global prosperity, accounting for more than two thirds of employment and half of gross domestic product (GDP) in developed countries, and about 40% of jobs and 25% of GDP in developing countries.

“Strengthening local enterprise also boosts competitiveness and increases local absorptive capacities, both of which are necessary for attracting foreign investment and for it to have positive multiplier effects,” Mr. Zhan said.

UNCTAD supports small business creation via its Empretec programme, which operates in numerous developing countries through national Empretec centres that offer introductory and continuing courses on entrepreneurship.

By Ekow Quandzie