Micro-businesses in Ghana set to receive training in 2011

Two organisations in Ghana will collaborate to capitalise on the skills they learned on a recently completed Commonwealth Secretariat project to continue helping micro-businesses develop in the country.

The National Board for Small Scale Industry (NBSSI) and the EMPRETEC Ghana Foundation will continue to work together to extend the work of a Secretariat project which introduced a range of new business tools and training courses to help micro-businesses develop.

NBSSI, the top governmental body in Ghana promoting and developing the micro and small enterprises sector, will organise at least 20 more Secretariat-inspired training courses in 2011 for micro-business owners, two in each of the 10 regions in Ghana, while EMPRETEC Foundation, an international entrepreneurship and capacity-building organisation, will offer more advanced support to help the entrepreneurs realise their goals.

NBSSI and EMPRETEC have been working with the Commonwealth Secretariat to develop Business Development Services (BDS) in Ghana to address the needs of growing small and medium enterprises (SMEs). BDS aims to improve the performance of enterprises by providing better access to services such as information and communication technology and finance.

The Secretariat’s Special Advisory Services Division developed tools for diagnosing the needs of growing SMEs, designed an original micro-business in transition training course to help SMEs acquire essential business skills, including how to prepare a basic business plan, and enhanced the capacity of public and private providers of development services.

During September and October this year, the Secretariat trained 35 NBSSI staff on how to help entrepreneurs prepare business plans, which the staff piloted on 75 micro, small and medium enterprise operators during workshops held with the support of a Secretariat consultant.

The NBSSI said: “We wish to express our sincere appreciation to the Commonwealth Secretariat for granting us the opportunity to participate in the project and more especially for building the capacity of our staff to effectively deliver services of value to its clients.”