Take Full Advantage Of Opportunities In The Private Sector

Mrs Kosi Yankey, Executive Director of National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), has charged Ghanaian youth to take opportunities in private businesses and put in efforts to deliver to be successful.

She said the private sector was playing key roles in the economy, urging small and micro-enterprises participating in the training to strengthen themselves and to assist others and provide employment and growth.

She said the private sector was the only avenue for job creation and thus referred to them as the 'the engine of growth'.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Business Management and Planning training organised for members of SPINNNET Textiles and Garment cluster (an association of textile and garment producers in Ghana, Mrs Yankey said issues related to employment in Ghana must not be taken as the sole responsibility of a party or a government in power.

She added that individuals who participated in the training must be able to practise what they had learnt and continue pushing the country into achieving greater goals.

'Think of how to create jobs for yourself and everyone, think of how Ghana will be able to develop and think of how you will apply everything you have learnt in the past 10 days', she said.

Mrs Yankey encouraged all to be innovative in order to make changes in the society and project themselves as great people and acknowledged some challenges in the industry which included the lack of access to finance and non-availability of ready market.

However, she encouraged all to 'come together as an association and advocate what was right'.

'These trainings build the capacities and confidence of participants and drive them to seek support from other places when the need be', she added.

She noted that participants would be able approach stakeholders so that they could support themselves and the industry at large.

Mr Samuel Dodoo, President of the SPINNET Textile and Garment Cluster noted that 25 participants were trained in areas such as business management, business planning and market research, standards quality control as well as export marketing.

He said, the training would assist members (mainly small and medium scale producers in the textile and garment manufacturing industries) to enhance their capacity and be able to take advantage of various government initiatives.

'From today, trainees would be able to access the foreign market and improve their productions capacities as well as expand their competiveness in the local and international market', he said.

Mr Dodoo said stakeholders from within the textile industries, were present at the gathering and their contributions showed emphasis on marketing strategies, development of business plans for small scale medium enterprises and also various business management principles as well as strategies needed to be adopted.

He added that the issue realised from some trainees was the necessity to make their business sustainable.

Due to this during the training, they were educated on how to ensure they had good succession plans and the right mechanism that would enable them to survive and make good profit.

He encouraged the youth who were going into business to make sure they followed laid down procedures, including registration of their businesses and obtaining the necessary training.

'Keep your records and educate yourself on financial management so that your business will be able to survive and benefit from government programmes and projects that are ongoing', he said.

He acknowledged the support of BUSAC fund (the Business Sector advocate fund) and the NBSSI, who provided training consultancies for the 10-day workshop.

Madam Matilda Hesse, a participant said she had acquired many new skills from the training adding that the study on record keeping had given her a broader view about how to keep accurate records.

'I always thought I was keeping records, but since last week I have learnt a lot and even wish to learn more after this training'.

GNA
By Thelma Abbey, GNA