Gov't agency trains small businesses to be international competitors

The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has trained about 200 people in the Small and Medium Enterprise sector in an effort to boost their capacity to do business in other markets.

The two-day training programme, which was on the theme “Support to Improve Services to Micro- and Small-Scale Enterprises in the Field of Food Safety and Quality Management”, seeks to support SMEs to achieve certification in Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Programme (HACCP) – to ensure that their businesses have integrated concepts of food safety management in their operations.

It was funded by the European Union under the Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling (TRAQUE) programme.

In all, 134 staff of the NBSSI, 15 private business development service providers and 50 micro- and small-scale enterprises benefitted from the training programme.

The Executive Director, NBSSI, Lukman Abdul-Rahim, noted that access to markets is the major challenge that SMEs face and that understanding of food safety requirements was necessary to expand the reach of business operators.

He said 10 out of the 50 micro and small enterprises will be selected through a screening process to maximise their export performance through implementation of food safety and quality management in the agro-business sub-sector.

“This is to improve the quality of food products and also enable them develop an effective food management system at the enterprise level,” he said.

Mr. Abdul-Rahim said the support to the SMEs through the training programme is timely as many Ghanaian businesses are competing on the international market and need to boost their capacity to effectively compete by ensuring that products meet international standards.

He said poor product and service quality, poor packaging and labelling, poor finishing, and the inability of operators to meet local and international standards and specification have seen some Ghanaian products rejected in other markets.

“The issue of inadequate access to markets that militate against the growth of SMEs in the country has its roots in a number of factors, which the entrepreneur has the potential to address,” he added.

By: Samuel Sam, Tamale