Let’s focus on developing SMEs
All over the world, it is small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that metamorphose into conglomerates, multinationals and blue-chip companies and become the drivers of development.
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Countries such as India and China that have experienced a turnaround in their economies have largely been able to do so through companies that started on a very small scale as sole proprietorships or partnerships.
Those companies, however, did not achieve those feats on their own. They had help from the state, as well as financial institutions and the banks, to turn their dreams into reality.
However, in Ghana, red tapeism, the lack of tax incentives, unfriendly fiscal regimes and trade policies, preferential treatment given to foreign companies and the high cost of doing business have conspired to discourage a thriving SME sector.
We acknowledge the government’s efforts at creating the Medium and Small-Scale Loans Scheme (MASLOC), the Export Trade, Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund (EDAIF) and the Youth Enterprises Support (YES) Fund, but the bureaucracy alone discourages people.
We have carpenters, masons, plumbers, welders and a host of other artisans, but what we are yet to see the mentorship of small businesses by our banks and state institutions on how to successfully run their businesses.
The Daily Graphic hopes that the ongoing street-naming exercise will remove the major hurdle in providing concrete addresses to banks to facilitate loans to SMEs, as indicated by the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Julius Debrah.
Today, we have about 60 private universities, more than 10 public universities, 10 polytechnics and other training institutions.
Unfortunately, the polytechnics are in the process of being upgraded into degree-awarding institutions, a reflection of our mindset that obtaining degrees is the only way out of our present development challenges.
It also indicates our lack of focus on vocational and technical education, which seems to be waning. In effect, we are only producing professionals with book knowledge but without the practical experience of engaging in actual production or using their hands to change their circumstances for the better.
As a result, unemployable graduates from institutions of higher learning have overwhelmed policy makers, culminating in the formation of the Unemployed Graduates Association.
Let us practicalise the cliché that the private sector is the engine of growth by empowering SMEs through practical training by our institutions, adequate financing from the banks and a conducive environment provided by the government.