Ghana launches online shopping mall to create jobs

The Ministry of Business Development has launched a digital platform, Ghana Online Mall, to create jobs and also serve as a startup for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the country and to revamp private sector marketing opportunities.

An initiative of the Ministry’s National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP), the Ghana Online Mall will also serve as a repository for all businesses on the platform and allow local vendors to sell hard-to-find handmade Ghanaian items.

Under the main portal, Ghana Online Mall will be the Africa Online Mall, the NEIP Online mall and the NEIP marketplace, all of which would connect Ghana to the international market, create platforms for jobs and market authentic made-in-Ghana products, respectively.

The platform

Mr. Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, Minister of Employment and Labor Relations, who launched the platform in Accra, said the digitized platform would showcase local products and encourage exchanges between all businesses on the platform.

“It will also help investors identify potential businesses for investment and enhance trade relations among the diaspora community and Ghanaian businesses,” he indicated and said, “about 500,000 businesses will be on the platform within a year.”

The first phase of the online project, he said, would support 10,000 businesses with a complete directory, product images and short videos.

He said the government is committed to empowering the private sector by maintaining long-term macroeconomic stability while creating up to 8,000 jobs in the first year of implementation of the Ghana Online Shopping Center platform.

Baffour-Awuah said the country could not be left behind in the digital marketing revolution and described the Ghana Online Mall as a launch pad to accelerate business growth.

Business Development

Dr. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister of Business Development, said one of the government’s objectives was to create a productive, knowledge-based economy.

However, he said, this would only be possible if people were strategically empowered with the skills and competencies to compete.

Mr Awal, therefore, called on young entrepreneurs to acquire the necessary attributes such as being disciplined, time consciousness and also add value to their products to make them competitive on the international market.