Germany’s leading development agency in Ghana, GIZ, has successfully stabilized 6,000 Medium, Small, and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) and created 2,000 jobs across various sectors through its Support to the Private and Financial Sector Project.
Launched to address challenges facing Ghana’s private sector, the transformative initiative concluded after one year of implementation, delivering significant contributions to the country’s private and financial sectors.
Guided by the German government, the project was funded by the Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ), with co-funding from the European Union in Ghana, and executed in close collaboration with Ghana’s Ministry of Finance and other key governmental partners.
The project’s key achievements include supporting 6,000 MSMEs through financial literacy programs, product innovation, business development services, and green growth initiatives. In response to Ghana’s unemployment challenges, it has created and sustained 2,000 jobs, strengthened institutional frameworks, improved regulatory systems, and fostered a more inclusive and sustainable financial ecosystem.
These contributions are part of a broader effort to lay the foundation for a resilient, inclusive, and green economy in Ghana. The initiative was designed to tackle the soaring unemployment rates and the systemic challenges that MSMEs face—challenges that were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted global economic and financial systems.
MSMEs are pivotal to Ghana’s economy, forming a significant portion of the informal sector and contributing approximately 70% of GDP (Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research – ISSER, 2021).
They are also a cornerstone of job creation, employing roughly 85% of the national workforce. However, MSMEs face persistent obstacles, including limited business skills, low access to credit, high borrowing costs, lack of trained personnel, weak management capacity, and limited market access, challenges that informed the design of this initiative.
Through targeted interventions, the project delivered substantial impact by building the capacity of selected financial service providers to develop needs-based products for MSMEs, improving the regulatory framework for MSME financing, promoting financial literacy and awareness, facilitating networking among business development service providers, supporting the development of associations and service providers, and linking MSMEs and associations to financial service providers.
The initiative builds on the successes of the Programme for Sustainable Economic Development (PSED), which concluded in 2022, continuing GIZ’s commitment to empowering Ghana’s private sector and promoting sustainable economic growth.
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