Women entrepreneurs to receive major post-coronavirus boost

The Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, says her outfit is focused on helping women entrepreneurs restart their business to become resilient after the impact of Covid-19.

She urged them to take advantage of the micro, small, and medium enterprise policy to improve the growth and productivity of their businesses.

This was at a roundtable conference of women entrepreneurs in Koforidua.

Figures from the NBSSI indicate that small and medium-scale enterprises account for and contribute to 70 percent of the Ghanaian economy.

Ninety-two of all Ghanaian businesses are micro, small, and medium businesses, which employ up to 70-60 percent of the workforce.

Women in these businesses account for almost 44 percent.

The NBSSI boss, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, said the figures showed the resilience, strength, and the power of thinking of the Ghanaian woman in entrepreneurship.

She acknowledged the challenge had been access to finance for a lot of women and also growing their business and urged them to take advantage of the MSMEs which, among others, support the local economic development, technology transfer, access to finance, building of capacity and regulatory support.

“So far as the focus is to ensure that we move these enterprises and entrepreneurs from one level to a higher level that would ensure they continue to be the backbone of the Ghanaian economy.”

She noted it was important to help businesses restart and become resilient after the Covid-19 impact.

“We know how to evolve. We know how to take advantage of what exists and turn around. We at NBSSI are here to support you and show commitment to what you are doing.”

Other stakeholders from the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) and financial institutions advised the women to streamline and position their activities, get appropriate standards, and make use of digitization.

A total of 60 women participated in the roundtable conference.

They were confident the discussions on their challenges would be resolved and opportunities explored.

“I have learnt to reinvest in my business,” one said.

Another added: “Certification and digitization can boost my market.”