The SCORE has benefitted many Ghanaian Enterprises—Samuel Onoma Asiedu

The National Project Coordinator for the Sustainability Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) at the International Labour Organisation Ghana Project Office, Samuel Onoma Asiedu has disclosed that the initiative has helped a lot of enterprises to improve their productivity.

According to him, over 200 enterprises that had subscribed to the SCORE have been able to reduce their cost and increased productivity competitiveness to meet the needs of their clients.

Currently, the SCORE is in its 3rd phase of the program and expected to come to an end in December this year.

Mr. Samuel Onoma Asiedu said this at SCORE Coherence and Sustainability Planning Workshop held in Accra earlier this week

He noted that waste management in the manufacturing sector is one key element SCORE seeks to address.

Mr. Asiedu noted that strategic plans have put in place to ensure a sustainable SCORE program in Ghana.

"We can't exist without ensuring that this project has the right structures to continuously deliver the benefits that are expected to benefit enterprises in Ghana".

"We have on board five institutions that have mainstream SCORE into their delivery, which are sure this project ends, these institutions will continue SCORE in the next phase", he said.

He went on to add that the institutions include Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (STCCI), Score Training Solutions Ghana (STSG), Hospitality Coaching (HoCO Consult), and the Federation of Professional Traders Association in Ghana (FEPTAG).

He said that these five institutions will work on five models approach namely, SCORE Regular Cost, Short Cost, Business Continuity Planning Training Program, Gender Inequality for Enterprises and Hospitality Coaching to deliver its mandate to enterprises.

About SCORE

Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) programme is a global technical assistance programme of the International Labour Organization (ILO) that supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow and contribute to the creation of more and better jobs by improving their competitiveness through better quality, productivity, and workplace practices.

In Ghana, SCORE started in the year 2011 and has been running to date; it's currently in its final phase (phase 3).

Vincent Annan, Chief Executive Officer of Sekondi-Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the chamber has been able to support 86 enterprises in three regions ( Western, Central, and Bono-Ahafo region) to enroll on SCORE.

Speaking on the challenges, Mr. Annan said, " initially SCORE was for the manufacturing sector for enterprises operating within the manufacturing sector and we know Ghana our manufacturing not too broad; so it was difficult getting and rolling to come on board and benefit", he said.

Adding that, STCCI will work with the Ghana Tourism Authority in the next phase to get the exact number of enterprises within the hospitality sector.

On Covid-19, he underscored that the outbreak of the virus has had negative effects on a lot of enterprises and its impact has kept unveiling hitting hard on multi-national companies in the Western region.

Stating that, the chamber has supported 1,050 enterprises comprising of SMEs and traders to apply for the stimulus package which about 70% of enterprises have received payment.

On his part, Director General of MDPI, Mr. Kweku Odame-Takyi has appeal to the government of Ghana to include SCORE expenditure in this year's budget items.

According to him, "it is estimated that if we can get GH¢100,000, MDPI should be able to train 30 enterprises in the country", he said.