DBG, GCYE to train and finance 1,000 young entrepreneurs

DBG, GCYE to train and finance 1,000 young entrepreneurs

Wholesale bank, Development Bank Ghana (DBG) and the Ghana Chamber of Young Entrepreneurs (GCYE), are set to train and finance 1,000 young entrepreneurs in the country.

The partnership between the DBG and GCYE to train and provide long-term credit to young entrepreneurs, is in support of government’s GHS 10bn YouStart Initiative.

Speaking at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between DBG and GCYE, Deputy Managing Director of DBG, Michael Mensah-Baah, noted the DBG-GCYE partnership has a lot to offer young entrepreneurs and that both the DBG and GCYE are committed to ensuring that the partnership delivers on expectations.

“The partnership between DBG and GCYE is very relevant in the wake of government’s call for more entrepreneurship opportunities for the youth, starting with the recently introduced YouStart Initiative.

“We therefore believe that our partnership with GCYE will inject additional momentum into the effort to grow Ghana’s new generation of private sector players,” he quipped.

Adding that, “The DBG is committed to accelerating inclusive and sustainable economic development by fostering the growth of a competitive private sector.”

On the back of the partnership, DBG and GCYE have developed a capacity-building programme to strengthen the soft and hard skills of young entrepreneurs in order for them to stay competitive and improve their business operations.

The capacity building programme will aim at training businesses to scale up their operations as well as de-risking them to be able to access loans from DBG’s participating financial institutions (PFIs).

At the end of the series of workshops and capacity-building programme which will last for a year, entrepreneurs will be onboarded onto the DBG-GCYE digital platform as part of the Ghana Integrated Financial Ecosystem led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the DBG.

According to DBG and GCYE, a dedicated portal will be setup for prospective young entrepreneurs to register and apply to be part of the capacity-building programme.

Meanwhile, the Development Bank Ghana (DBG), within the first three (3) months of its operations, has disbursed a little over GHS 245m to its partner banks for onward lending to SMEs in the country.

Within the next six (6) to twelve (12) months, it looks to further disburse some GHS 1bn of medium to long term capital to SMEs through its partner banks.

The disclosure of the amount disbursed by the bank since it commenced operations was made by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the DBG, Kwamina Duker in an interview with norvanreports on Thursday, October 6, 2022.

The DBG has mapped out plans to disburse $600 million worth of credit facilities to small businesses over a 2-year period.

Loans to be given out to SMEs by DBG would have maturity dates of 3 to 15 years. The DBG is hoping to increase the proportion of loans available for small businesses from 9% to 15% between now and 2024.