The Strategic Youth Network for Development (SYND) on Friday held an inception meeting for young green business owners in Ghana.

It was attended by financial institutions, green entrepreneurs, donors and the media.

Similarly, it was to build capacities of these green business owners to meet the required International Standards so they could attract funds from donors or financial institutions.

Speaking to the media, Priscilla Adogo Ahiada Project lead for the Young Green Entrepreneurs (YGE) said the meeting would usher them into a one- year program aimed at promoting the interventions of young entrepreneurs by enhancing their skills in Ghana’s climate and environmental sustainability as well as build their capacities to meet the required standards to attract funds from donors.

“By providing orientation, support, and community building opportunities, the meeting will help the YGE entrepreneurs to thrive and make a positive impact on the environment and society” she stated.

Giving the reason why the engagement was important, Ms Ahiada said the meeting was a crucial step in setting the stage for the success of the cohort of green entrepreneurs.

For her, global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) had increased by almost 50 per cent since 1990, with the past 7 years being the hottest on record adding that climate change affects both developing and developed countries, and a growing world population causing increased pressure on resources resulting in their depletion and degradation.

That she said required urgent action and that was why entrepreneurs especially the youth who had taken it upon themselves to produce products targeted at reducing the menace needs to be thoroughly equineedto help address this climate change.

She said a survey was carried out to find out some of the challenges faced by these entrepreneurs and they were access to funds, low marketing and sale skills, not aware of tax incentives andbeing  poor development of business cases.

Ms Ahiada pledged to create space for continuous knowledge learning and sharing among young green entrepreneurs.

Mr Emmanuel Asamoah a bee harvester said he was optimistic that the one-year programme would equip him to have more knowledge about the work and contribute his quota to the development of the country.

SYND -Ghana is a nongovernmental organization focused on conducting research on various climate and environmental policies from the youth perspective and provide advocacy support on climate change in Ghana on key international and national issues such as UNFCCC processes including negotiations.

 BY BENEDICTA GYIMAAH FOLLEY