A former Director of Corporate Affairs at the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP), Joseph Osei Oppong Brenya, has urged the new management of the agency to learn from the mistakes of the previous administration, warning against reducing the initiative to what he described as a “miniature version of MASLOC.”
Speaking on the theme “Youth Entrepreneurship: The Role of Government” at a seminar organised by the Entrepreneurs and Innovators Network Ghana at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) last Monday, Mr Oppong Brenya cautioned that NEIP had in recent years lost its focus and drifted into microcredit-style operations that undermined its founding purpose.
He criticised the practice of offering small stipends of between GH¢10,000 and GH¢20,000 to entrepreneurs, arguing that such sums were inadequate to establish or sustain any meaningful enterprise. “Amounts like GH¢10,000 or GH¢20,000 cannot establish or significantly invest in the businesses of entrepreneurs,” he stated.
Mr Oppong Brenya advised the new administration to instead focus on supporting a smaller number of entrepreneurs with substantial funding ranging between GH¢200,000 and GH¢500,000. He said this would enable them to build viable and sustainable businesses capable of employing others and contributing to Ghana’s economic growth.
“The practice whereby huge numbers are selected and paraded to show working must be avoided,” he said, adding that the agency’s future success depends on quality investment rather than quantity-based publicity.
He also emphasised that entrepreneurs seeking smaller financial support should be directed to the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), which he said was better suited to providing microloans to petty traders and small-scale businesses. “Small grants are often misused and wasted,” he said. “Those seeking such support should be encouraged to access MASLOC rather than rely on NEIP.”
Mr Oppong Brenya argued that NEIP’s original mission was to nurture entrepreneurship and innovation through business development support, mentorship, and long-term funding, not to distribute small amounts of money for political visibility. “NEIP lost focus and was duplicating efforts similar to MASLOC,” he lamented.
He urged the current Chief Executive Officer of NEIP, Eric Adjei, and his management team to adopt a more targeted and impactful approach that invests in a select group of promising entrepreneurs capable of scaling up their operations and creating sustainable jobs.
“The only way for NEIP to achieve its mandate is by selecting and investing in a few entrepreneurs with viable business models rather than spreading limited resources too thinly,” he advised.
The National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) is a flagship government initiative aimed at supporting and nurturing entrepreneurship across Ghana through funding, training, mentorship, and business development services. Established to drive job creation and innovation, the programme has supported thousands of startups since its inception but has also faced criticism over the effectiveness and sustainability of its funding model.