Meeting with the National Board for Small Scale Industries
The Executive Director of the Board, Mrs Kosi Yankey, together with her team including the Deputy Director, the Director of Entrepreneurship Development and the Acting Head of Women Entrepreneurship Development held a meeting with some members of the QMP. The Queen Mothers were led by Nana Amponsah Dokua III, the President and the Paramount Queen mother of Osudoku Traditional area.
The reason for the request to meet with the NBSSI, was outlined as: the need to introduce the Queen Mothers Platform to the NBSSI, as an institution ready to partner with them and to be included in all policy discussions as a major stakeholder, to propose strategies on collaborating with NBSSI on rolling out the Corona Virus Alleviation Program.
The Executive Director thanked the members of the Council for coming to NBSSI with their proposal, she however mentioned that they had already engaged associations on the current CAP program and hence it was too late to engage the Queen Mothers at the time. She did express enthusiasm in partnering with the Queen mothers on other projects they are running and upcoming projects in the future. She reiterated on their efforts in working with more women and the vulnerable groups, and hence they are happy to be introduced to the Queen Mothers Platform. She suggested that the best way forward will be to have an MOU signed with the NBSSI, to have the QMP spell out what they can partner with the NBSSI on looking at its mandate. She mentioned the NBSSI’s readiness to support the QMP with logistics they may require, i.e. laptops, Printers etc. Additionally, the Executive Director of the NBSSI indicated that they will need about 39,000 youth to work with, which she is sure the Queen mothers are capable of the mobilization. This will however happen with there is a formal agreement between the two parties, hence the need to have an MOU signed. She added that, the template will be shared with the Secretariat to be completed by the Queen mothers.
It was concluded that, the QMP will be added to a platform of Associations they work with, they will support the QMP with logistics, including providing laptops and printers, the head of women enterprises will send an MOU template to the QMP and provide the contact details of the members of NBSSI who participated in the meeting and lastly, an MOU should be signed between the QMP and the NBSSI.