Commerce, Agribusiness and Business Minister Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare mentioned the proposed Girls’s Growth Financial institution would supply low-interest loans, versatile collateral necessities and tailor-made enterprise assist to women-led enterprises, as the federal government seeks to deal with the funding hole going through ladies entrepreneurs.
Talking on the 2026 Ghana Girls CEO Summit, the Minister described the initiative as a significant financial intervention aimed toward positioning women-owned companies for enlargement and job creation.
“As we speak, the 2026 nationwide finances allocates 401 million Ghana cedis as capital for this establishment,” she disclosed.
She mentioned the financial institution was established as a result of many conventional monetary establishments failed to supply ample providers to ladies entrepreneurs.
“This can be a specialised monetary establishment constructed on one perception: Present business banks aren’t structured to serve ladies entrepreneurs at scale,” she mentioned.
She defined that the Girls’s Growth Financial institution gives “low-interest financing, versatile collateral necessities, mentorship, and enterprise growth assist particularly for girls and women-led companies.”
Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare argued that rising ladies’s participation in enterprise and commerce is crucial to Ghana’s financial transformation, noting that ladies stay one of many nation’s most underutilized financial property.
“Ghana can not obtain its financial objectives if half of its inhabitants stays underutilized,” she confused.
The minister famous that ladies personal about 40% of companies in Ghana, but obtain solely a fraction of accessible enterprise loans.
He additionally cited worldwide estimates that assist the financial case for focused financing and inclusion insurance policies.
“IFC estimates that closing the financial hole between women and men in small and medium-sized companies in sub-Saharan Africa might generate $42 billion in annual financial worth. McKinsey International Institute predicts that advancing ladies’s equality in Africa might add $316 billion to the continent’s GDP,” she mentioned.
Along with financing, the minister highlighted the federal government’s intensive coverage framework for women-led companies, together with the 24-hour financial coverage, affirmative motion laws, and export growth applications below the framework of the African Continental Free Commerce Space. He added that women-owned companies in sectors comparable to agro-processing, manufacturing, retail and commerce will profit from tax incentives, commerce facilitation measures and assist for industrial parks.
“The coverage system has been constructed. The problem is implementation and pace. We can not permit 50 p.c of our inhabitants to grow to be a footnote in growth plans,” she mentioned.
He maintained that the federal government’s give attention to ladies’s empowerment is instantly linked to Ghana’s financial development objectives and long-term competitiveness.
“Girls’s financial participation will not be a gender program. It’s our nationwide competitiveness technique. Nations that maximize the productiveness potential of ladies develop quicker, are extra resilient to financial shocks and construct fairer societies,” she confused.
The Minister additionally referred to as on monetary establishments, growth companions and the non-public sector to behave in keeping with the Authorities’s inclusion agenda by rising assist for girls entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises.
“When ladies succeed, households prosper and nations prosper. That’s our governing philosophy, and it’s backed up by laws, budgets and political will on the highest ranges,” she added.
