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The Ministry of Education has awarded over 100 million Ghana Cedis worth of grants to 105 enterprises as part of the launch of the Ghana Skills Development Fund (GSDF).

Speaking at the event, Dr. Fred Kyei Asamoah, the Director General of CTVET indicated that “this GSDF is part of the government’s overall strategy to industrialize Ghana has as its objective to Create jobs and competitiveness of the skilled workforce and raise the income-earning capacities of people, especially women and low-income groups, through the provision of quality-oriented, industry-focused, and competency-based training programmes and complementary services”.

Dr. Asamoah further indicated that “GSDF is a challenge fund mechanism which addresses the skills needs of enterprises operating in both the formal and informal sectors of the economy of Ghana”.

The Deputy Minister for Education Hon. Gifty Twum-Ampofo who was the keynote speaker also revealed that “the Government of Ghana is applying a portion of a loan of USD 200 million from the International Development Association of the World Bank, towards the implementation of the Ghana Skills Development Fund (GSDF) as one of the key components of the Ghana Jobs and Skills project”

She was emphatic that, the fund will help support the upgrading of the skills of employees within at least 700 enterprises and companies for productivity improvement and to enable employees to adopt emerging new technologies.” “We also hope that it will enable current employees to earn higher technical and vocational skills qualifications and incomes. And finally, lead to upgrading the skills of master crafts-persons and self-employed graduate apprentices”, she remarked.

Hon. Gifty further indicated that H.E. the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in 2017 at the Centenary celebration of the Asuansi Technical Institute pledged and stated that “it was the goal of his government to make Ghana a world-class center for skills development, and a leading country in technical and vocational education training (TVET) delivery in Africa and also make skill acquisition aspirational for all Ghanaians”. She said, “in relation to this the NPP Government over the past 6 years has worked to improve on governance and management by establishing the Commission for TVET (CTVET) and the TVET Service through the passing of Act 1023 and Act 1049 respectively to enhance quality, expand access, and increase funding for TVET.”

Hon. Gifty went ahead to state that, “we are consolidating our gains in the past years by keeping to our promise. We are taking conscious steps to make Ghana a center of excellence in TVET in West Africa and to make Ghana globally competitive within the TVET ecosystem. This commitment is clearly shown in our quest to establish the Ghana Skills Development Fund launched today and to develop policies that will drive positive changes within the sector”.

The first cohort of beneficiaries received dummy cheques after successfully going through a thorough application and selection process and can start implementing their various concepts in earnest.

As part of the launch of the GSDF, it was revealed that the next call for applications will be start from 1st August to 31st August 2023 and all interested enterprises can visit the GSDF website to apply for any of the four windows available. This next call for applications will be preceded by an extensive sensitization and outreach programme in all 16 regions of Ghana to create awareness about the fund and how one can apply.