Ms Charlotte Baidoo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Women’s World Banking Ghana, has called on African women to empower themselves.“Women should use opportunities available to them to empower themselves, to be able to take up challenges,” she said.
Ms Baidoo said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a policy forum on women economic inclusion, an event organised by Global Entrepreneurs Network (GEN) - Ghana, as part of the ‘Global Entrepreneurship Week- Ghana’.
The Forum which was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Business Development highlighted on how women-led entrepreneurship could drive economic growth and emancipation, in accessing finance, training, agriculture, fintech, as well as other industries.
Ms Baidoo said women should not make themselves vulnerable for people to think they are marginalized but, should justify their call for inclusion in development efforts.She said in aiming for excellence there is the need for women to have the ‘can-do-spirit and be self-confident’.
She said this would help them to refuse to doubt or underestimate their capabilities.
“Don’t think you need men to survive, try and do something for yourself; earn a living and God will reward you”, she said.Mrs Amma Lartey, CEO, Reach for Change Africa, also told GNA that in some parts of the country women work for income yet their businesses remained smaller due to challenges.
She said at Reach for Change Africa, they work with entrepreneurs whose work empowers women; by helping them to structure their businesses in a stronger way so they could access funding and grow their businesses.
Mrs Lartey said they also support them with mentoring and skills so they could build stronger businesses and deal with the challenges they face.She urged women entrepreneurs to dream big and as well connect with networks like Reach for Change Africa that could provide them with the mentorship they needed to grow.
Mr Stephen Gyasi-Kwaw, Founder of GEN Ghana, said Global Entrepreneurship Week-G has been celebrated globally since 2008 with an objective of promoting entrepreneurship with much emphasis on the youth.
He said with this year’s event which was also in line with its 10th anniversary, one of the iconic things that happened was that GEN in partnership with the South African government opened one of the biggest Start-up campus in South Africa.
The CEO said that was centre where people could visit to access information and meet investors and possibly acquire resources they needed to start up their businesses, as such, Ghana had been given an opportunity to have a space in the startup campus.
Mr Gyasi-Kwaw told GNA that the policy forum was part of activities marking the Week celebration, and it touched on what could be done at the policy level to stimulate female entrepreneurship or female economic inclusion in Ghana.
He said there would be a ‘Social Thursday’, an initiative being championed by the British Council and it highlights social entrepreneurship, adding that “social entrepreneurship is another model where business could be used to address problems.
The CEO said the celebration would be climaxed with a signature event dubbed “start- up weekend”.“It brings together people of different set to develop products in 54 hours, afterwards, they will further do presentations to potential investors”, he added.