Absa Bank, Mastercard Foundation entrepreneurship project impacts lives in Upper West Region

Beneficiaries of the Absa Young Africa Works (AYAW) project have described the project as a game changer for young people and women-led enterprises in the Upper West Region.They described the project as exerting a positive impact on their business development and growth.They said the intervention had not only helped to expand businesses in the region but had also trickled down to the communities through employment creation, especially for young people and women.The AYAW project is a partnership between the Absa Bank Ghana and Mastercard Foundation to support young people and women-led agribusinesses.As part of the support, Absa Bank provided affordable loan facilities to the beneficiary businesses at a 10 per cent (10%) interest rate with 16 businesses in the region benefiting so far.Recounting the impact of the support to her business, Madam Joy Okra, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Awo Fields, an agribusiness in Wa, to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Piisi, said it had helped h er to expand her farms and create employment for young graduates who would otherwise be out of jobs.She said due to financial resource constraints, she nearly abandoned two of her three farms, but that after accessing the support in 2023, she had cultivated all her farms and expanded some.She said: 'The number one challenge is funding. Everything that we do here involves money. We've been scaling up with the revenue that we've been getting, and then with the support from Absa Young Africa Works project, we've been able to scale up our business.'Before Absa came in, we had out-growers that we support as well as our own nuclear farming and other activities, but we couldn't support all the farmers that came in to ask for assistance.But with the support from Absa Young Africa Works, we've now been able to increase the number of women and the out-growers as well as in-growers that we are working with,' Madam Okra explained.She added that the business had 1,505 out-growers, but with the support of the AYA W project, it was able to add additional 300 out-grower farmers with about 65 per cent of them being women and youth.Madam Okra explained that with the loan facility from the project, the company had planned to venture into dry-season vegetable farming.Mr. Emmanuel Aha, the CEO of A E Farms Company Ltd, an agribusiness in Jirapa, told the GNA in an interview during a visit to his company that the AYAW project was timely as it had enabled him to increase his sorghum production.A.E Farms accessed GH?4 million through the project, which he said helped the company to increase its production to meet the increasing demand for sorghum, especially by Guinness Ghana Breweries Plc.'Before we joined the Absa Young Africa Works project, it was quite challenging. When it comes to the marketing of sorghum, timely payment of farmers was a challenge.After accessing the Absa Young Africa Works project support, the impact has been so great,' Mr. Aha said.Mr. Aha indicated that they also engaged eight new employees after accessing support from Absa Bank through the project.Source: Ghana News Agency