Empowering Entrepreneurs: US Government Pledges Support for Women Businesses.

Accra: Ms. Virginia Palmer, the United States Ambassador to Ghana, has reaffirmed her commitment to supporting the development of women entrepreneurs in the country. She pledged continued efforts to improve access to credit, a significant challenge for many businesses, particularly women-led enterprises. The Ambassador made these remarks at the graduation and exhibition ceremony for the sixth cohort of the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE).According to Ghana News Agency, AWE provides enterprising women 'the knowledge, networks, and access they need to launch and scale successful businesses.' This year's edition focused on recruiting and training Ghanaian women entrepreneurs with existing businesses. Ms. Palmer emphasized the importance of creating a conducive business environment for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), noting that an improved environment benefits both Ghanaian and international investors, traders, and entrepreneurs.She urged the Ghanaian government to implement measures that wo uld support businesses, including the timely payment of bills and efforts to reduce the cost of credit. "There won't be investment in critical sectors like power generation if major utilities and the government don't pay their bills on time… and I know that affects small and medium enterprises, most of all, because you are least able to sustain a bill that's overdue for six months or a year or longer," she noted.The Ambassador encouraged local entrepreneurs to take advantage of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which allows duty-free access to the US market for Ghanaian products. Ms. Palmer explained that women who graduated from the AWE programme were eligible to apply for the United States Africa Development Fund (ADF), which included both cash grants and capacity building.Thanking facilitators and alumni, she expressed confidence in the graduates and urged them to maintain strong networks for business growth. "One of the United States' top priorities in Ghana is helping to foster economic g rowth and job creation. That is what you [graduands] are doing… And we know that if you succeed, Ghana succeeds… And if Ghana succeeds, the whole region and indeed the world are better off. This training is an important element because we want to support and develop women entrepreneurs as engines for economic growth and job creation," she stated.Some 75 trainees from 10 regions were awarded certificates on Saturday in Accra, after the 13-week training programme. Dr. Shola Safo-Duodu, Country Lead, AWE Ghana, highlighted the impact of the programme over the years and encouraged trainees to enhance their businesses with the knowledge acquired.Some of the courses, she said, included social media marketing, finance and accounting, customer management, taxation, strategic planning, and confidence building. "This year, we focused on women who have had a business for at least two years so we can prepare them for pitching and the investor community… The courses are structured such that it answers a specific secti on of a business plan so that, by the end of the programme, trainees are able to write a business plan that they have generated themselves… and we encourage them to practice what they have learnt," she noted.