In a significant milestone for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana, about 140 beneficiaries have completed training under the inaugural edition of the MTN Ghana Foundation’s Enterprise Support Programme.

The 140 MSME owners also received a capital injection of up to 10,000 cedis each.
The MTN Ghana Foundation invested a total amount of Gh¢1 million to support their businesses after the training.

The beneficiary participants were enrolled on the MTN Momo Market, an e-commerce platform that offers beneficiary businesses the opportunity to showcase their products to an audience of over 20 million customers.

The Enterprise project targets youth, women, and differently-abled led MSMEs and aims to support 500 MSMEs in Ghana over the next five years.

The training modules were designed to address the needs of beneficiaries identified during the initial needs assessment.

The training for the beneficiaries included Bookkeeping, Business Model Innovation, Financing your Business, Business Cost and Pricing, Design Thinking, Branding, Sales and Marketing, Business Management, Financial Literacy, Digital Marketing, and Customer Service.

The training went beyond technical knowledge for business growth and sustainability, it also provided an experiential approach with peer-to-peer teaching and learning as well as networking opportunities.

Madam Adwoa Wiafe, the Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer of MTN Ghana, expressed their excitement with the impact the programme has had on the livelihoods of the beneficiaries in the first year of the five-year programme.

According to her, they at the MTN will continue to improve its implementation and monitoring in the second year to enhance its impact on the beneficiaries and their businesses.

She disclosed that, the programme is MTN Foundation’s way of helping to address a significant challenge faced by micro and small-scale enterprises in the country and access to capital.

She expressed the view that, in providing the much needed support they are complementing the government’s efforts to build a sustainable livelihood for business owners from low income communities.
She added.

A beneficiary for the project, said she thoroughly enjoyed the training as they learned about the benefits of proper branding, customer experience, marketing, communication, and branding which she said she will apply to improve the way she do business.

A person living with disability also a beneficiary, said he enjoys everything about the training, says they were taught in Twi, which enable them we understood whatever training they went through, and could manage their businesses, maintain their customers and attract new ones.

The MTN Enterprise Support Programme is a legacy project of MTN Ghana and was established in celebration of its 25th Anniversary in 2021.
The initiative was launched in 2023 and is being implemented in partnership with the Innohub Foundation.

The second year of the project will be launched in this April 2024, where another group of MSMEs from three regions will be invited to submit applications.
The shortlisted MSMEs will be given the opportunity to pitch for the grant and the successful beneficiaries will be selected for onboarding for the 2024 edition.

By Ernest Best Anane, Kumasi