CEO of Samba Foods calls for proactive SMEs

Tema, Nov. 6, GNA - Mrs Leticia Osafo-Addo, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Samba Foods, has underscored the need for macro-level regulations, to motivate the financial institutions to foster healthy relationship with the small-scale and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) within the manufacturing sector.

She noted that the SMEs are supposed to spearhead the nation's development agenda in the agro-business sector through value addition to raw materials. Mrs Osafo-Addo made the call at the re-launch of Samba products, which include shito (Pepper), peanut butter, jam, marmalade, and a variety of fresh fruit juices, in Tema. She said the growth of the SMEs was being impeded by numerous challenges.

Mrs Osafo-Addo catalogued lack of a national holistic policy to take care of the specific needs of SMEs, raw materials, cost effective and efficient machinery, committed and skilled work force, and understanding by officialdom of the needs of SMEs as some of the major challenges facing the enterprises.

The CEO said the re-launch of the company's products was to create a unique brand identity, adding that the ultimate objective "is to have a food processing emporium with the fortification of.staple foods with micro-nutrients, vitamins and mineral substances". This, she said would go a long way to take care or eliminate, micro-nutrients deficiency syndrome in children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

Mr Johnson Adasi, Director at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in charge of SMEs and Technology, said through the National Board for Small-Scale Industries, the Ministry would soon convene a stakeholders' meeting and draw an Industrial Sector Support Programme to assist SMEs in the discharge of their duties.

Mr Tony Oteng-Gyasi, President of the Association of Ghana Industries, said SMEs played a vital role in the economic development of the economy, and stressed the need for government to give them the needed support to enable them to live up to expectation. Mrs Pavelyn Tendal Musaka, Zimbabwe Ambassador, said her country looked forward to increased healthy relations with Ghana in all spheres of endeavour.

Mrs Comfort Aniagyei, Managing Director of GhanaMade, a corporate entity, noted that the increased consumption of made in Ghana products would spur the country on in her economic growth. She said anytime Ghanaians patronised made in Ghana goods, they were distributing wealth either consciously or unconsciously. "How we distribute that wealth, is what determines our future as a nation," she stressed.

Mrs Muriel Edusei, Regional Manager of Oikocredit, a credit company in charge of Anglophone West Africa, asked SMEs to come out with more innovative products.

Mrs Aku MacBruce, Area Manager of the Ghana Commercial Bank in charge of the Tema Zone who chaired the function, urged SMEs not to downplay research, but to value the findings and apply them seriously in their day-to-day activities.