$4m Training Package For SMEs

THE SMALL and Medium-scale Enterprise (SME) sector lacks the requisite capacity to win contracts and conduct mutually profitable businesses with large corporate organizations despite its huge size.

Owing to the lack of requisite skills among most SMEs, Invest In Africa (IIA), a private sector initiative for small and medium-scale businesses in all sectors across the country has introduced a $4 million capacity-building package.

About 120 SMEs are expected to benefit from the three-year Business Linkage Programme (BLP) beginning September 2015.

Funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB) through its Fund for Africa Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) and sponsored mainly by the Japanese Government, the BLP is expected to improve the ability of SMEs to access financing to strengthen their management and governance systems.

Country Manager of IIA, Sam Brandful, in a speech, said the BLP sought to among other things, increase local procurement by raising the capacity of SMEs to produce goods and services that meet the required standards of international and domestic buyers.

Selection Process
To qualify for BLP, applicants are expected to first register as local suppliers on the online business directory of IIA, the African Partner Pool (APP), which must be followed by an expression-of-interest through electronic mail (email).

He stressed that the training, which is expected to be conducted in phases, was limited to only duly registered members of the pool.

Statistics
Available statistics on SMEs indicate that the sector in Ghana contributes to about 85 percent of employment, which accounts for 70 percent of Ghana's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and represents 92 percent of registered companies.

The programme intends to offer essential business skills and governance training to 120 SMEs.

He called on other stakeholders, namely government, the private sector and development partners to ensure the implementation of other SME support schemes.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Seth Twum-Akwaboah, in a statement read on his behalf, lauded IIA for coming out with such an initiative, appealing to SMEs to make use of the training to improve their capacity.

BY Melvin Tarlue
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