Proforest Africa partners NIRAS to implement the Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Programme (GPSCP) Phase II

The Ghana Private Sector Competitiveness Programme (GPSCP) Phase II was launched in Accra to contribute to productivity in the cashew and oil palm value chains in Ghana. The five-year programme is jointly implemented by Niras and Proforest Africa with support from the Swiss Government.

The GPSCP II will deliver its mandate using three implementation modalities:

• Strategic Cooperation Partnership: To strengthen the Tree Crops Development Authority (TCDA), the programme has entered a strategic cooperation partnership. Guided by a Memorandum of Understanding, the programme will support TCDA with its mandate of regulating the cashew and oil palm sectors and facilitate high-impact reform initiatives.
• Rapid Response Mechanism: The RRM is a fund, from which Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) under the Government of Ghana can access finance to support and align reform initiatives that will benefit the market systems of both value chains.
• Development Partnership with the Private Sector: This is a matching grant fund for the private sector to strengthen processing, market linkages, service provision, sector associations, access to finance, and skills development in the cashew and oil palm value chains with counterpart contribution of the beneficiaries of the fund.

Entrepreneurship and partnership are key ingredients of development; so we need to create an enabling environment for the private sector to expand, grow and become more competitive, said HE Simone Giger; the Swiss Ambassador to Ghana.