By Seth Danquah
Takoradi, Sept. 30, GNA – The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has stressed the need for the development and building of managerial skills of entrepreneurs to enhance the sustainability and growth of their businesses.
He said enhancing management skills was crucial for building a business and that perseverance and openness to learning were key attributes for any entrepreneur.
These were contained in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Frederick Agyemang, Western Regional Coordinating Director at the opening session of the 17th Electrical Wiring Certificate Awards Presentation Ceremony held in Takoradi.
He mentioned helping to raise awareness on the number of opportunities that were available to grow businesses, such as the variety of finance providers in the market as another form of support which could be offered to entrepreneurs.
The Minister said, entrepreneurs must understand that every business entrepreneur made mistakes and suffered setbacks, often for reasons beyond their control but that the key difference was how one responded to such mistakes and the setbacks.
Mr Darko-Mensah therefore, urged all existing entrepreneurs and future ones to be strong and know that they could come back stronger in the end if they persevered.
The Regional Minister indicated that youth entrepreneurship was high on every political agenda to boost competitiveness and employment, since the young entrepreneurs had the potential to build new economic dynamics geared towards growth and job creation.
He said the Government over the years had given attention to entrepreneurship promotion that focused attention on creating a more enabling environment to support youth entrepreneurs.
Mr Darko-Mensah pointed out that education and training had been a critical tool to develop the entrepreneurial mind set and specific skills for business start-ups and development.
He said there were SMEs support agencies which had been established as ‘one-stop’ shops providing more packaged support such as training and financial support, advisory and mentoring services for young people.
“May I, therefore, use this occasion to urge the youth especially, to look critically and assess the gaps that exist in the business landscape and set up enterprises that are sustainable, to fill in the gaps,” he stated.
The Regional Minister hinted that MasterCard and other Foundations were available for the youth to venture into entrepreneurship and that the Western Region offered many business opportunities for consideration under these initiatives.
Mr Isaac Yankson, Deputy Director of Trade and Industry for Western Region mentioned some of the core functions of the Ministry as the facilitation of private sector access to capital, and to ensure that private sector development programmes were complementary and covered a broad range of needs.
He added that the Ministry also facilitated innovation and entrepreneurship, to develop standards and Quality Systems to meet production requirements for local and international markets and facilitate the removal of institutional and legal bottlenecks.
Mr Yankson said the Ministry of Trade and Industry has been rigorously pursuing its National Industrial Transformation drive which sought to industrialise each District in the country and spatially create decent jobs for all.
GNA