Govt Launches GSDF To Empower SMEs2 min read

The government through the Ministry of Education and the Commission For Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) with funding support from the World Bank have launched the Ghana Skills Development Fund (GSDF), with the primary objective to empower Micro and Small Enterprises grow their businesses.

The GSDF is a challenge fund mechanism that addresses the skills needs of enterprises operating in both the formal and informal sectors of the country’s economy.

The Fund is a demand-driven response to two of the most critical challenges encountered by Ghana’s productive sectors, namely a qualified and skilled labour force and the acquisition and development of technology towards increased productivity and practical innovations.

Deputy Minister of Education in-Charge of TVET, Gifty Twum Ampofo, indicated that the fund’s primary objective is to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the skilled workforce and raise the income-earning capacities of people through the provision of quality-oriented, industry-focused, and competency-based training programmes and complementary services.

She also noted that the government had prioritised TVET to make it relevant to the industrialisation agenda. She estimates that GSDF will benefit 42,000 through direct employment.

Stressing the need to forge mutually beneficial partnerships with the private sector – for instance, regarding apprenticeship, Dual TVET, Workplace Experience Learning (WEL), and employment, Mrs. Twum Ampofo averred that the government has set out to establish 22 of these Sector Skills Bodies out of which 12 of them have already been established and inaugurated.

“We all know that a functional TVET/skills development system will improve the productivity and competitiveness of the skilled workforce in the country. The government can’t do this alone, so let’s all support this agenda,” she appealed.

The Director General of CTVET, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah, stated that the government complied with the Education Regulatory Bodies Act. 2020 (ACT 1023) in establishing a standing Committee called the Ghana Skills Development Fund Committee as part of the organizational structure of the Commission for TVET (CTVET) to explore avenues and deliberate on the most appropriate approaches to sustaining TVET financing.

Addressing issues on the strategies government will deploy to increase and sustain TVET financing, Kyei Asamoah said “the government has established the Ghana Skills Development Fund (GSDF) to serve as the vehicle for raising TVET finance and disbursing the funds as well,” he said.

Lead Economist at the Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice, World Bank, Elena Glinskaya commended the government and reaffirmed the World Bank’s commitment to supporting the government’s vision of strengthening small and medium enterprises for skills development and job creation.