Cooperation with private sector to yield 5000 jobs by end of 2025 in Ghana
A ‘Special Business Cocktail and Culinary Safari’ hosted by Invest for Jobs on 25th November in Accra forms part of a strategy to promote and strengthen private sector cooperation and highlighted the successes and constraints of the private sector in the light of development cooperation.
“Since the inception of Invest for Jobs in Ghana, the project has cooperated with about 28 European private sector companies in Ghana.”, explains Anne-Marie Castel-Langefeld, of GIZ’s country programme in Ghana, which is implementing the Special Initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition" at the beginning of the event. Together, these projects will contribute to the creation of 5000 jobs by the end of 2025.
The event turnout despite a busy workday in November, amid heavy traffic in Accra, was high. Chief Executive Officers and leading figures of European and Ghanaian businesses and others attended the event. It was a good representation of all relevant cooperation partners in the room to allow for effective networking. “I spent almost an hour in traffic to get here; but it was worth it. I had to pick up business discussions with a CEO I had been trying to reach for a while now without success; I knew he would be here, and we had a fruitful discussion,” explained a happy Aaron Adu, Managing Director of Global Shea Alliance.
The event attracted positive and diverse feedback on how ‘unique’ and ‘special’ the event was in terms of the ambience and calibre of participants. His Excellency Daniel Krull, German Ambassador to Ghana graced the occasion with a brief message to congratulate the private sector participants and the Invest for Jobs team for a conscious effort to foster continued cooperation.
The event catering was done by the Ghana Food Movement that served rich modern Ghanaian cuisine, based on products, sourced by the partners from Invest for Jobs.
About 60 participants attended the event, such as Knauf, Veolia, Touton, Nestlé, Getinnotized, Amazon Web Services, Amalitech, Fairafric, Yayra Glovers among others- Various heads of programme and team leaders of organisations of the German Development Cooperation -including GIZ, KfW, IFE, DEG also participated for purposes of building synergies and improving cooperation particularly for projects that shared common partners; this was a critical objective. The Head of Cooperation at the German Embassy (Mrs. Dorothee Dinkelaker), the Head of GIZ West Africa II in Eschborn (Mrs. Kirsten Focken), GIZ Ghana Country Director (Mrs. Regina Bauerochse), KfW Ghana Country Director (Mr. Arndt Wierheim) and the Delegate from the Delegation of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Mr. Burckhardt Hellemann) also participated.
The Business Cocktail event is the second in the series of ‘Dialogues with the private sector’ initiated by the Network for Inclusive Economic Development at GIZ Ghana to promote sustainable economic cooperation.