SMEs
Alhaji Seidu Abubakari, Tolon District Chief Executive has said access to capital and resource remained one of the major challenges facing small scale businesses especially women groups who undergo training in entrepreneurial skills.
He said government agencies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) continued to equip women with self-help skills but they still failed to meet conditions of securing the needed capital to start working on their own and called for committed efforts to support them to grow.
The DCE therefore appealed to financial institutions to take keen interests in investing in women with potentials and support them as their contribution towards job creation to help in promoting made-in-Ghana goods, to grow the economy.
Alhaji Abubakari was speaking at the closing ceremony of a ten day training programme in pomade and liquid soap production for women groups at Nyankpala in the Tolon district of the Northern Region, on Thursday.
The initiative is being championed by the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), aimed at creating jobs to improve the livelihood of women in rural areas.
The skill would serve as an additional income generation and an alternative livelihood venture during the dry season.
The DCE challenged the beneficiaries to generate innovative ideas that would help sustain their businesses without depending on government for incentives and assured of government’s commitment to support those ready to establish their own businesses.
Mr Haruna Mohammed, Head of BAC NBSSI advised the groups to register their association so that they would be recognized by investors to support them.
Mr Abubakari Jacob, Resource person, stressed the need for educational institutions to add entrepreneurial skills training to their curriculum to ensure that students, who want to do business after school did so with little support.
Hajia Zaratu Abdul, a beneficiary, commended government, the Assembly and the NBSSI for such the initiative, which would give them additional income aside farming.
