By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, Nov. 25, GNA – A total of 60 women and youth led Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) have undergone training to enhance their capacities on good corporate governance to help sustain their operations.
The day’s training, held in Tamale, was also to position the beneficiary MSMEs to be investment ready and credit worthy to help address the issue of access to credit in the country.
The beneficiary MSMEs, who were drawn from the Sagnarigu Municipality, and the Kassena–Nankana West District Assembly in the Northern, and Upper East Regions respectively, specialised in agro-processing, shea processing, smock production, tourism value chain businesses amongst others.
The training focused on addressing issues of risk management, succession planning, developing strategic and business plans, record keeping and business registration.
The training, organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and facilitated by experts from the University of Professional Studies, Accra, formed part of the UNDP’s integrated support to ensure that MSMEs led by women and youth flourished in a green, inclusive, and equitable manner.
The UNDP’s integrated support included building of capacities and helping institutions to deliver better services to support MSMEs through interventions that would be led by national and sub-national actors, supporting MSMEs with capacities, skills and grants to innovate and leverage additional financing from the private sector to recover greener and smarter.
Additionally, MSMEs were being incentivised to adopt sustainable business practices to address the potential environmental pollution that accompanied their operations and proffering alternative efficient energy sources that could help MSMEs to become more competitive, cut costs and optimise their operations as well as prevent violent extremism.
A study by the Ghana Statistical Service supported by UNDP revealed that MSMEs were struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, and even those that bounced back were operating at levels lower than the pre-pandemic levels, hence the UNDP’s integrated support.
Selected women and youth led MSMEs in the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Ketu South Municipal Assembly, Sefwi Wiawso Municipal Assembly, and Jomoro Municipal Assembly would also benefit from the training.
Mrs Jennifer Asuako, Programme Analyst at UNDP Ghana Country Office, speaking during the training, said “As a development agency, we recognise that the role of MSMEs in economic development is prominent.”
She said “MSMEs’ contribution to Ghana’s economic growth cannot be underestimated. MSMEs’ in Ghana create employment and serve as major tool for poverty alleviation. As businesses, you have been noted to contribute about 85% of manufacturing employment and account for about 92% of businesses in Ghana. Women and youth constitute about 70% of the MSMEs economy in Ghana.”
Mrs Bernice Beliebe Shaibu-Waale, Chief Operating Officer at Demipearl Company Limited, a groundnut value chain and events company at Sagnarigu, said “The COVID-19 pandemic affected our operations. To help us recover, we introduced some innovations, but we have since been struggling to grow.
“This training is going to impact our operations positively because we have been struggling to get access to funds to help us grow. The knowledge on strategic planning and business proposal will move us from our current state to a higher ground.”
Madam Osman Beatrice Habiba, Head, Business Advisory Centre, Kassena–Nankana West District Assembly, lauded the training and said it would help strengthen MSMEs’ operations, expressing optimism that this would help them to grow well to help sustain the development of the country.
GNA