DON'T POLITICISE PROJECTS — BAFFOUR-AWUAH (PAGE 9)

Story: Samuel Duodu,
Sunyani.

The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has urged Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) operators in the region not to politicise the Ghana Government (GOG) and the World Bank (WB) project for MSMEs in the country.
They should rather strive to derive the full benefits from the project.
According to him, the MSMEs project, which is jointly financed by the government and the World Bank was aimed at supporting entrepreneurship development, trigger growth and lower poverty levels in the country.
The minister noted that the project was so important to the region that it could not be underestimated.
“The region, therefore, sees the launching of the project as timely and good opportunity for the business community to further improve upon their enterprises, increase their production levels and generate more job opportunities”, he stressed.
Mr Baffour Awuah said this in an address read on his behalf by Mr Kwame Twumasi-Awuah, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, at the regional launch of the GOG/WB MSME project in Sunyani, the regional capital.
The MSME project is a Government of Ghana initiative to provide essential financing and technical support to enhance MSMEs development in the country.
It is expected that the project would generate growth in the national economy and lower poverty levels by increasing the competitiveness and employment levels of MSMEs.
Mr Baffour-Awuah observed that though MSMEs contributed towards the overall development of the nation and the region in particular, there were challenges that their operations faced and mentioned some of them as poor road network to the rural areas, irregular supply of electricity and water, inaccessibility of credits to small and medium enterprises at the bank’s since most banks insist on collaterals which they find difficult to get.
However, he stated that despite these challenges that the operators were confronted with, it was his expectation that the vigorous infrastructure development programme that the government was pursuing would solve some of the challenges.
Mr Baffour-Awuah also expressed the hope that the project would go a long way to free MSMEs operators from the problems associated with capacity building, access to market and technical assistance.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist on the project, David Oppong, said the $119 million nationwide project, which would last for a period of five years, would reduce business constraints faced by the MSMEs, such as technical barriers to trade.
It would also develop and strengthen the capacity of local intermediaries to deliver financial and non-financial services to MSMEs as well as build the capacity of MSMEs.