The Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn) initiative has recently been launched in Ghana. Funded with €20.6 million from the European Union and other development partners, the programme aims to create 5,000 jobs in central and western Ghana in the sanitation and plastic waste recycling sectors.
The Ghanaian job market will soon have green jobs on offer, thanks to the programme “Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities in Ghana (GrEEn)”, launched on May 13, 2020 in Accra, the capital. The 4-year initiative aims to contribute to the fight against the root causes of illegal immigration through green and climate resilient local economic development.
The cost of the programme amounts to €20.6 million. The funds are being mobilised by three development partners: the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV), a non-profit sustainable development organisation, and finally the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), which aims to keep young Africans in their countries of origin by providing them with decent work opportunities.
Young people, women and returning migrants are the main targets of the programme. “GrEEn will make it possible to train and finance people with green projects such as the recycling of plastic waste, the manufacture and distribution of ecological homes and the production of compost,” said the project’s coordination unit, adding that support would also be offered to small and medium-sized enterprises active in the fields of agriculture, energy, water and sanitation, in the form of incubation and acceleration of their development. Ultimately, a total of 5,000 green jobs will be created in Ashanti and Western, the two target regions of the project, located in central and western Ghana respectively.
“Green” Jobs in Ghana
There are no official statistics on green jobs in Ghana yet, though young people in this West African country have a lot of imagination in this area. One example is the Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative (GBBI), a bamboo bicycle manufacturing company based in Kumasi in southern Ghana. It employs around 50 workers, mainly women, whose hand-made bikes are sold for between 150 and 300 euros each. “We also grow bamboo to feed the industry. We are reducing the carbon footprint and we hope to do even more in the future,” said Bernice Kapaa, the founder of GBBI, who was present at Africa Climate Week in Accra, Ghana, in March 2020.
Boris Ngounou
