Kobina Tahir Hammond (left), minister of Trade and Industries, cutting the ribbon to officially commission the Akuapem North Business Resource Centre. Assisting him are Osahene Boafoa Ansah III (middle), Kontihene of Akuapem Traditional Area and Kwasi Atta-Antwi, Director of Rural Enterprise Programme. Picture: ERNEST KODZI

2 Resource centres opened for local businesses

Kester Aburam Korankye Business News Feb - 22 - 2024 , 04:16

THE Minister of Trade and Industry, Kobina Tahir Hammond, has officially inaugurated two Business Resource Centres (BRCs) located in Akropong within the Akuapim North Municipality and Dodowa in the Shai Osudoku District.

The BRCs, one-stop enterprise support centre at the district level, have been designed to provide a broad range of Business Development Services (BDS) to potential and existing entrepreneurs and enterprises.

The services include the identification of business opportunities, business plan preparation, facilitation of access to finance/credit and business health check, otherwise known as business diagnostics.

They also operate as financial and investment facilitation hubs and business information repositories for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The concept of BRCs was introduced by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in 2017, through the Rural Enterprises Programme (REP) co-funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), African Development Bank and the government.

Vision

Mr Hammond said BRCs were part of the institutional support interventions designed by the government to support its Industrial Transformation Agenda to develop the MSMEs sector, which accounts for 92 per cent of business enterprises in the country.

He said the growth of such enterprises were of primary concern to the government as it had the potential of reducing the number of unemployed youth in the country.

Presently, the sector employs about 80 per cent of our workforce and generates about 70 per cent of GDP.

“If we want to develop like countries which started with us like Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea, then we have to pay attention to small and medium-scale enterprises, and these facilities are supposed to help these enterprises succeed,” he said.

Mr Hammond urged the public to make use of the centre and hold officers accountable for its operations while ensuring that the purpose for which they were established was fulfilled.

Maintenance

The Chief Executive Officer of the GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, charged the assemblies under which the facilities were built to help maintain them and make good use of them.

She said the centres would provide quality direct implementation support for MSMEs in the country, which would in turn drive the economy and make it more sustainable and resilient.

However, she said the GEA, in undertaking its supervisory role over the BRCs, would ensure that the requisite tools to function were provided as expected.

The National Director of the REP, Kwasi Attah-Antwi, said one of the biggest achievements of the REP was the huge innovative institutional legacy that was being bequeathed the country at the district, regional and national levels for the promotion of business development.

“The BRCs are for the promotion of business development services, engineering technology development, industrialisation, among others, particularly in the rural areas," he said.

He said 19 of the BRCs were ready for commissioning across the country to help facilitate trade and bring stability to SMEs.