KUMASI ENTERPRISES PROJECT LAUNCHED (PAGE 29)

Story: George Ernest Asare, Kumasi

THE Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, PSD and PSI, Mrs Gifty Ohene-Konadu, has launched the Micro, Small, Medium and Enterprises (MSME) project in the Kumasi Metropolis as part of government’s initiative to provide essential financing and technical support to the business community in the Ashanti Region to accelerate the development of the industrial sector.
The project, which is the collaboration of the Ghana Government and the World Bank, seeks to support the MSME’s in the country with a total of $118.90 million to facilitate their growth to enable the country to achieve middle-income status by 2015.
It is one of the 10 pilot projects that had already been launched at Accra, Cape Coast, Sekondi -Takoradi, Tamale, Bolgatanga, Wa and Sunyani.
It also seeks to provide a comprehensive range of integrated interventions to address the major constraints that affect the growth of MSME’s in Ghana, and is designed to benefit firms and business associations as well as financial institutions, business development and service providers.
According to Mrs Ohene- Konadu, the project “ is also seen as one of the major vehicles needed to mobilise and harness the potentials of the MSME sector, which already accounts for more than 90 per cent of all registered companies in Ghana”. Launching the project, Mrs Ohene-Konadu called on the private sector to take advantage of the opportunities offered them by the government and explore the sector further to facilitate its growth.
She noted that the project “ is well designed to make our MESE’s more competitive and more efficient in their operations and also encourage managerial discipline in carrying out their day-to-day activities”
Stressing on the fact that it also “seeks to facilitate access to finance and markets as well as providing business advisory services, infrastructure and entrepreneurship development and technology improvement to the business community”.
She pointed out that the Ashanti Region abounds in a lot of products and natural resources that were yet to be developed for both domestic use and export.
She therefore challenged them to “aggressively pursue and avail themselves of the unprecedented opportunities being offered as an intervention to develop a vibrant and productive MSME sector”.
She explained that it was when the government recognised the challenges that confronted the MSME’s that it came out with such a timely intervention. She noted that by coming out with the intervention, the sector would be well focused to achieve rapid growth and poverty reduction goals in line with government’s objectives.
“ It is clear that a focused and tailored-made assistance to the SME sector will make a significant impact on the transformation of the economy of Ghana from low income economy to middle level income society in 2015,” she stressed.
Mrs Konadu also urged Metropolitan and District Chief Executives and other government appointees in the various agencies in the region “ to own this project
and provide the needed support and maximum commitment to the realisation of the laudable objectives set by the government”.
In his presentation, the Finance Access Manager of the MSME, Mr Abra Appiah, made an assurance that the project “ will support the establishment of business incubators and the creation of Common Services Centres (CSC) to enhance economic opportunities for MSME’s”.
He said among the facilities that would be established by the project were an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) park, a Furniture City, a clothing technology and Training Centre and Projects involving the creation of common service centres.