Coronavirus: About two million Ghanaian jobs to be impacted – NBSSI

Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), has projected that about two million Ghanaian jobs could be impacted by the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

According to Kosi Antwiwaa Yankey, analyzing the socio-economic impact will see a large part of Ghana's workforce being the worst hit by the pandemic.

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Speaking in an interview on Starr FM on Wednesday, April 8, Kosi Yankey said: “I think that we would lose a lot, I mean when we look at it off the back of the cover, we are looking at about two million jobs, that is the informal and formal sectors”

“Because if you look at the Ghanaian economy, there are two things going on, you have the informal economy where we might not have enough numbers, but if we give and take which is actually about 80% of our economy, and you looking at the formal, the hotels, it could be a lot more than you think,” she explained.

However, as part of efforts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, NBSSI in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation will provide a GH¢90 million Emergency Response Program to support small and medium scale businesses in Ghana.

“There’s a lot of structural changes taking place in the formal and informal economy and the idea behind the fund is to ensure that people keep their job. The Mastercard programme is designed to help reduce the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic by helping people stay employed,” Mrs Yankey explained.

The Emergency Response Program will focus on supporting the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, start-ups and businesses in growth sectors where the employment of young people, especially young women, will be negatively impacted as a result of business operation disruptions, supply chain challenges, liquidity shortages, declining sales and profits, and business closures.