Accra, Nov. 24, GNA – A total of 120 climate friendly enterprises and entrepreneurs have successfully gone through Ghana Climate Innovation Centre (GCIC), a pioneering business incubator with a unique focus on developing Small Medium Enterprises and entrepreneurs in Ghana’s ‘Green Economy’.
The operations of these enterprises and entrepreneurs span across domestic waste management, energy efficiency, greening and climate smart agriculture.
Cumulatively, the activities of these businesses have avoided about 14,526 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions – unwanted air, which would have impacted negatively on the climate making it warmer.
Ms Ruka Sanusi, Executive Director of GCIC, said this at a graduation ceremony for cohort six of GCIC’s business incubation programme in Accra.
The cohort numbering 19, are dotted nationwide operating in climate adaptation and mitigation activities – in line with Ghana’s climate plan, Nationally Determined Contributions.
The event was used to premier the Centre’s annual climate focus documentaries that showcased cohort six entrepreneurs’ climate-smart innovations and their impact on the community and country.
The documentaries covered businesses from each of GCIC’s five key economic sectors and greening businesses from across the country with emphasis on representing male and female businesses equally and will be subsequently aired on selected TV stations between the November 24th and December 2, 2022.
It will highlight how the entrepreneurs during their incubation with the GCIC, are pioneering adaptive and mitigating solutions for climate change issues in Ghana, how they are impacting their communities as well as the results of their capacity building.
Ms Sanusi said the cohort six alone, in the first and second of its three quarters, had created 51 new jobs, generated revenue of $1,303,324, employed 539 people and awarded $343,425 in grants.
She said, “The group has served over 241,641 with their products and services and most impressive of all, avoided 70,684MT CO2 emissions, which was the equivalent of 15, 707 cars CO2 emissions for a year.
“It is at a social cost of $50 per tonne, saves a total marginal cost of $3,530,200 of the impacts caused by emitting one extra tonne of greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide equivalent), inclusive of ‘non-market’ impacts on the environment and human health”.
Key personalities who attended the event included the Director of Development and Head of Cooperation at the High Commission of Canada in Ghana, Mrs Kathleen Flynn-Dapaah, Fosuah Adjei, Director, Climate Change at Ghana’s Forestry Commission, Yvette Tetteh, CEO, Pure & Just and GCIC Alumni and Abdul-Nasser Alidu, Marketing and Strategy consultant as well as members of the GCIC’s Cohorts six and seven.
GCIC’s mission is to develop and support an exceptional set of transformational ventures and entrepreneurs who are pioneering adaptive and mitigating solutions for climate change issues in Ghana.
They do this with a focus on five key economic sectors namely energy efficiency & renewable energy; solar power; climate-smart agriculture; domestic waste management; water management and purification.
The provision of premium business advisory and business mentoring services, technical support in the development, prototyping and testing of their innovation, as well as financial Proof of Concept grants to qualifying SMEs within our incubator.
Source: Ghana News Agency
