Dr Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister of Business Development has said that many businesses in Ghana collapse for lack of business mentorship from successful organisations.
He said records available indicated that about 75 per cent of small and medium scale businesses folded up within three years due to lack of business advisory services.
The Minister said this at the launch of the Business Advisory Service Providers Association of Ghana (BASPAG) in Accra.
BASPAG is the brainchild of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the U.S. government's Feed the Future Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (USAID - FinGAP) which linked agribusinesses and other SMEs to finance in order to expand their business operations.
The launch under the theme, "Transforming small and medium enterprises solutions" brought together stakeholders including agribusiness enterprises working in the maize, rice and soy value chains, SMEs, financial institutions and National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI).
Dr Awal said it was sad that though vibrant SMEs could contribute about 70 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) lack of sustainability was affecting business growth in the sector.
He said it was therefore, imperative to educate the SMEs on good proposal documentation in order to gain access to funds to enhance their business sustainability.
Dr Awal said the government had targeted four priority areas meant to accelerate economic development which would also take into consideration of West African markets.
He mentioned the areas as creating a robust agribusiness and agriculture sector supported by an industrialisation which would add value to the products.
Dr Awal said infrastructure development which would see to expanding roads, railways, airports and housing in the country with a deepened entrepreneur culture could take Ghana to another level of economic development.
He said his Ministries would make available 100 million dollars to young entrepreneurs who could take advantage of single digit inflation and reduced electricity tariffs, make an impact on their business to become business tycoons in future.
Dr Awal said dependence on charity could no longer find space in Ghana since after 60 years of depending on aids to develop the country has not impacted on the economy; it was time to work towards the "Ghana beyond Aid" axiom.
Mr George Boahen Oduro, deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture asked Ghanaians to see agribusiness and investment in agriculture as one of high yielding returns on one's investments.
He asked the financial institutions to consider proposal for loans from farmers on time since agriculture was a time bound venture adding that granting loans to farmers should not be seen as a high risk area.
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