NBSSI urges small manufacturers to access help from its advisory centres
Mr Emmanuel Neaku, Volta Regional Manager of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) has urged business owners in the Region to use the services Business Advisory Centres (BACs) to shore up their entrepreneurial capacities.
He said the largely free services of the BACs could inject competitiveness into their operations to enable them grow viable businesses that would outlive their originators.
Mr Neaku was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on the prospects for small-scale businesses in the region.
He said managers of many small-scale businesses in the region did not have the skills needed to trail client preferences and therefore often produced goods that did not do well in the market.
The Ghana Journalist Association (GJA), with funding from BUSAC, is currently sensitizing Journalists across the country to bring to the fore problems holding back development of small-scale businesses in the country.
The programme is intended to increase the capacity of micro-businesses to generate national economic growth and thereby reduce poverty.
Mr Neaku expressed worry about the low zeal among business owners to invest in updating their management and business development skills to the detriment of the businesses, many of which did not go beyond the fledgling stage.
He said many feared taking risk, shied away from credit and would hardly document their business plans.
Mr Ransford Kani, a Project Officer of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), observed that some micro-producers were finding the process of standardizing their brands frustrating and expensive.
"The impression one gets is that the regulatory bodies only catered for the big manufacturers," he stated.
Mr Charles Dartey, Manager of the Ho Municipal Area BAC, said a list of operational micro-businesses in the municipality was being compiled to enable the NBSSI target them for help.
He said currently, many of the over 300 registered small-scale businesses had either folded up, changed location or were operating at reduced capacities.