Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Enterprises Agency ( GEA), Kosi Yankey Ayeh has announced that since 2017, the government has invested a sum of GHç 2 billion in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) space.
As part of the government strategy, the investment hopes to renew the country’s SMEs and transport the economy from import and taxation to manufacturing over 3000 businesses benefit from it with 50 percent being women-owned businesses.
“That is a big success, especially when you look at the segment of small and medium enterprises; because SMEs look at the data and statistics, the majority of Ghanaian-owned businesses mostly women businesses are micro,” Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh.
She uttered these words during a stakeholder engagement and orientation on the SME High Growth Program, highlighting that: “We have reached a stage in our life where we need to transform the economy, and the only way is to have industries and also help your train capacity building for SMEs. A training that will boost competitiveness and help SMEs scale up their operations for further job creation amid the government’s efforts to restore macroeconomic stability.
The initiative will also help 2,000 SMEs to be ready for investment by attracting both local and foreign capital for job creation and job sustainability.
Mrs. Yankey emphasized that KPMG will provide technical assistance during the training to businesses to boost and improve their capabilities.
“The new SME High Growth Programme is designed to build on and consolidate the successes so far. And in this regard, we intend to provide SMEs with all relevant tools in business development, including the digital marketing tools necessary to enable them to take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“This makes the program design very relevant to the vision of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for SMEs through the GEA that is, to optimize their potential to enable them to contribute meaningfully to the growth and development of the national economy and poverty reduction,” Mrs. Yankey Ayeh said.
The initiative is expected to transition enterprises into the next stage of increasing sales and exports.
