Ghanaian entrepreneurs to meet over MSEs challenges

Hundreds of indigenous entrepreneurs are expected to gather at a stakeholder conference on Wednesday at the Accra International Conference Centre to ponder how to help Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) overcome barriers affecting their growth.

The Enhancing Development of Ghanaian Entrepreneurs (EDGE) Stakeholder Conference seeks to improve MSEs competitiveness and address key challenges in the sector by tooling them with the necessary skills and resources to improve their business plans and internal operations.

“It [the conference] looks to also create a thriving community of entrepreneurs through increased access to business development services and financing,” TechnoServe, conference organisers, said in a statement to the Ghana News Agency.

The EDGE Conference is a new initiative of the ENGINE programme, a multiyear entrepreneurship development agenda implemented by TechnoServe, with funding from UK’s Department for International Development.

The conference will culminate in the crafting of a bundle of actionable solutions to boost best practices towards firm, level–specific scalable solutions for promoting and deepening entrepreneurship development in the country, the statement said.

Participants would hold breakout sessions, panel discussions, and interactive dialogues, designed to facilitate awareness of the challenges and opportunities of setting up or expanding existing sustainable entrepreneurial ventures.

The event will end with a networking cocktail to allow entrepreneurs to establish connections with supporting organisations, industry experts, successful entrepreneurs, business development, service providers and seasoned experts.

According to the statement the ENGINE programme has made great strides by training hundreds of entrepreneurs across the country, following a successful launch in April 2014.

A cohort of Ghanaian entrepreneurs have also received seed capital of up to £6,000, through the programme, while many more have been granted a comprehensive aftercare package involving a mix of Business Development Services.

A growing network of 176 ENGINE alumni are already benefitting from essential capital and business development services injected into their operations, the statement said.

ENGINE has also provided its entrepreneurs with valuable product and business development that enabled the creation of market linkages and broadened their customer base through access to export markets in sister African countries, Europe and the United States of America.

Wednesday’s ceremony will conclude with an official opening and brief tour of exhibition booths showcasing products and services of entrepreneurs, as well as other stakeholders.

There will be a day’s conference on the theme: “Enhancing Development of Ghanaian Entrepreneurs,” designed to interactively address pertinent issues facing entrepreneurs in the Ghanaian MSME ecosystem, while designing a roadmap to strengthen entrepreneurship in Ghana.

The Head of DFID Ghana, government officials, representatives of development agencies, investors, personalities from the academia, and leaders of successful business organisations are expected to feature in the launch.