44% of MSMEs in Ghana owned by women – Elsie Awadzi-Addo
Forty-four percent [44%] of all micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country are owned by women, says the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Elsie Awadzi-Addo.
Making the assertion at the Second Anniversary Celebration of the Association of Ghana Industries’ Women in Business Initiative on Thursday, December 9, Mrs Awadzi-Addo noted the MSMEs sector accounts for about 92 percent of all businesses and contributes about 70 percent of Ghana’s GDP.
“According to the World Bank, forty-four percent of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana are female-owned, and this sector accounts for about 92 percent of all businesses and contributes about 70 percent of Ghana’s GDP. More recent data shows that Ghana’s private sector is dominated by women entrepreneurs, second only to Uganda, according to the 2019 MasterCard Index of Women Entrepreneurs,” she noted.
Delivering the Keynote address at the anniversary celebration, the Second Deputy Governor remarked that women entrepreneurs and the businesses they own and lead, face serious challenges as their businesses tend to remain smaller and less profitable than those owned by men, owing in part to limited access to business support services, markets, and finance.
Adding that, female entrepreneurs in the country are eight percent times less likely than men to access the kind of capital and other financial services and products that they need to start or scale up their businesses.
To address the limited access to finance challenge, Mrs Awadzi-Add noted the BoG has put in place mechanisms to support the delivery of credit on a sustainable basis to businesses, including women-owned MSMEs.
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“These include a credit bureau-based reporting system that ensures that banks and other licensed lenders report on credit behaviour (prompt loan repayments as well as defaults) on all borrowers, and that creditors check on borrowers’ credit behaviour before they make credit decisions on loan applications. Responsible borrowers therefore stand a better chance to access more loans and at reasonable interest rates as their credit risk will be lower.
“Also the Bank of Ghana’s Collateral Registry registers all collateral (over movable and immovable assets) provided by borrowers to licensed creditors and facilitates the delivery of credit to borrowers (especially women) who might not have access to immovable asset collateral,” she emphasized.
Touching on the African Continental Free Trade Agreement Area (AfCFTA), Mrs Awadzi-Addo noted there is great potential for Ghanaian women to harness the benefits
of the AfCFTA which creates a single African market, as well as many other opportunities beyond Africa thanks to technology and e-commerce platforms among others.
“These market opportunities offer hope to women-owned and women-led businesses in Ghana to scale up and to compete with their peers abroad,” she added.
Concluding her remarks at the event, Mrs Awadzi-Addo noted that the Bank of Ghana remains committed to promoting a policy and regulatory environment that supports inclusive and broad-based economic growth where all economic actors including women entrepreneurs, are able to innovate and access appropriate forms of financing and at cost-effective rates to help launch, grow, and sustain their businesses.
