Clement Boteng
18 August 2008
Sunyani — THE CHIEF Executive Officer (CEO) of KAB Governance Consult (KCG), Mr. Kwasi Afriyie Badu, has commended the media for playing an effective business advocacy role, by mainstreaming business reporting in their daily publications, and programmes.
Apart from promoting sales of goods and services, through paid publicity, the media, under a collaborated project by the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the BUSAC Fund and KGC, dubbed, "Using the Media to Strengthen Business Advocacy", was determined to highlight issues impeding the progress of the business community in the country, he noted.
The CEO of KGC observed that since the inception of the project, the media had focused on the activities of business enterprises, endeavouring to bring into the limelight entrepreneurs' plights, and how their potentials could be harnessed, to better their lots and the economy at large.
Mr. Badu, who made the observation at a media dialogue among the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), the media and entrepreneurs of micro and small-scale enterprises (MSEs), urged the media to sustain the advocacy role.
Delivering a paper on the topic, "Strategies, Challenges of NBSSI in the Promotion of Micro and Small Scale Enterprises", the Executive Director of National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Nana Baah Boakye, said the board was established to create a more vibrant entrepreneurial society, by fostering the growth of micro and small-scale enterprises.
He noted sadly that lack of logistics, inadequate funds, and loss of trained staff, due to poor working conditions, were among some of the factors militating against their work.
Nana Boakye explained that his outfit did not only provide technical training, but also educated entrepreneurs on the processes involved in loan acquisitions, to enable them access loans from financial institutions without much difficulties, adding that the NBSSI had a revolving fund, which was being given to micro and small scale enterprises, in the manufacturing sector, as loans.
He identified product development, poor packaging, marketing problem, lack of acceptable collateral to secure loans at the banks, poor customer relations, and lack of workplace structures, as some of the major challenges facing micro and small scale enterprises in the country.
He entreated the various industrial associations, to meet regularly and discuss issues of much importance, rather than trivial matters, and urged them to cultivate the culture of savings and record keeping, to enable them to access credit facilities at the banks.
The GJA General Secretary, Mr. Bright Blewu, urged the NBSSI to sit up and take its rightful position, in order to carry out its mandated duties, and bring to fruition the purpose for which it was established.
He noted that certain programmes, which involved disbursement of loans, ought to have been administered by the NBSSI, since it had the expertise in loan management, and also had an effective mechanism in place to recoup the loans.
Mr. Blewu told the entrepreneurs to keep the media informed on issues impeding the progress of their businesses. This, he said, would propel further investigations into the matter, and while the media highlighted the issues, the concerned authority could not turn a deaf ear to their plight.
During the open forum session, some of the entrepreneurs complained about multiple tax burdens, and difficulties in accessing loans from the financial institutions.
They also wished the NBSSI technical staff regularly visit their workplaces, observe their activities and provide them the skills that they might lack in their businesses.
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