By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah
Accra, May 21, GNA-Dr Justina Onumah, a Research Scientist, Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI), has called on government and the private sector to compliment funding of Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises with capacity building.
According to research conducted by the CSIR-STEPRI, she said funding enterprises without building their capacity could yield no fruit at all.
She made the call at a policy dialogue on MSME Innovation Support Programmes and their Impacts in Ghana in Accra, on the theme “Evidence to Action: Enhancing MSME Innovation Support for Inclusive Enterprise Development in Ghana”.
The dialogue formed part of the Distributional Impact of Innovation and SME support in Ghana project, which sought to generate empirical evidence and strengthen institutional capacity for innovation policy and MSME Support evaluation.
Dr Onumah said per their analysis, they found out that capacity building was a catalyst to performance of the MSMEs, even if they were given cash support.
“We realised that financial performance was okay among them, but innovation and employment generation was poor. The innovative aspect was relegated,” she said.
Dr Onumah said since the inception, the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme (NEIP) had been a flagship initiative to accelerate job creation and enterprise growth.
Yet, she said there had been limited systematic evidence on the performance and equity outcomes of such programmes.
Mr Casper Sunday Kampoli, the Director of Research and Innovation, NEIP, said NEIP valued research, and getting scientific evidence for programme design, monitoring and evaluation.
“The world is changing and COVID-19 has exposed all of us to a lot so without innovation, we will perish. Problems that should be solved in a space of time have become wicked,” he said.
He said NEIP was a youth focused programme and was intentional about creating jobs for the youth, reiterating the need to intensify the capacity building interventions of the youth in entrepreneurship.
Mr Kwamena Essilfie Quaison, the Director of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology said the dialogue was not just a meeting, but a call to partnership as government alone could not drive the agenda.
Government, he explained needed private sector commitment to invest in and mentor MSMEs, while scaling up funding and technical support.
Mr Quaison said it was prudent for both the public and private sector to support MSMEs to embrace innovation and sustainability.
“Please remember that when MSMEs grow, Ghana grows. When they adopt green practices, the environment thrives and when they innovate, the future becomes brighter,” he added.
Dr Gordon Akon-Yamga, a research scientist, CSIR-STEPRI, giving the project overview and purpose of the dialogue, said the project was targeted at strengthening capacities of project partners and generating empirically-driven research that characterised the MSMEs ecosystem.
It also aimed at assessing the performance and impacts of programmes implemented by the NEIP and establish a network or community of practice, he said.
GNA
Edited by George-Ramsey Benamba