About 56 women in the Ayawaso North District of the Greater Accra Region have been taken through nine days of capacity building, to equip them with skills in local cuisine business.
The Zongo Cuisine Promotion Programme, under the auspices of the Ministry of Inner-Cities and Zongo Development, in collaboration with the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) trained the participants in financial literacy, branding, hygiene and packaging, in order to improve their skills and enhance their market access.
More than 150 women in Zongo communities in Tema, Adenta, Madina and Ashiaman, all in the Greater Accra Region, have already benefitted from the programme.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, the sector minister, Alhaji Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said the programme was aimed at promoting Ghanaian cuisines.
Ghanaian delicacies, he said when well packaged would be able to compete with other delicacies across the globe.
Alhaji Abdul-Hamid said it was expected that about 500 women and men in the Greater Accra Region would be trained in food safety and quality, food presentation and packaging, standardisation, customer care and financial literacy.
He said the next phase of the programme would target business women and men in Nima, Sukura, Abeka, Lapaz and Nii Boi Town, all in Accra.
The minister, urged participants to carry out their businesses in a hygienic manner, adding that his outfit would continue to assist them to improve their businesses.
He said the government has decided to develop businesses of Ghanaians no matter their political, religious or ethnic background.
Alhaji Abdul-Hamid explained that the ministry chose NBSSI as its partner because it was a government institute legally mandated to assist in the development of small scale businesses in the country
The Executive Director of NBSSI, Ms Kosi A. Yankey, said the programme was targeted at food vendors in the Zongo communities.
She said when such women received support, they would in turn help in developing the skills of those in the communities and Ghana at large.
The Executive Director urged them to use the knowledge they have acquired to expand and improve their businesses.
Ms Yankey said her outfit would see to it that the women received the needed support to boost their businesses.
BY JEMIMA ESINAM KUATSINU
