Today, across the world every country prioritises small business development as an engine of transforming the social and economic lives of the citizenry, and Ghana has not ignored this recognition.

For Ghanaian entrepreneurs to remain competitive in the international market there is need to develop programmes and policies that will seek not only to provide the small businesses with information, but also give them an urge to be able to compete with their colleagues across the world, the Executive Director of NBSSI, Lukman Abdul-Rahim has indicated.

According to him, one major issue that will make local entrepreneurs more competitive is improved standard and quality because their products will be measured against products from other countries.

The Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sector constitutes the largest segment (80%) of the industrial sector in Ghana and generates about 75% of employment, but the MSE sector is confronted with a myriad of challenges.

These include inadequate access to financial assistance and stringent terms and conditions of financial institutions which hinder MSEs’ access to credit for growth.

Inadequate access to information, technology, new markets and the lack of sound entrepreneurial and managerial skills -- which affect business growth -- are other constraints confronting the sector.

The issue of inadequate access to market is one of the most serious challenges militating against the growth of MSEs in the country. These include poor product and service quality, caused among others by: poor packaging and labelling, poor finishing, and the inability of operators to meet local and international standards and specifications. Most MSEs have little or no exposure on issues of product quality improvement and standardisation.

It was therefore in this regard that the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) with funding from the European Union under the Trade Related Assistance and Quality Enabling (TRAQUE) Programme, put together a two-day workshop in Kumasi recently to build the capacity of MSEs in the agro-processing sector in food safety and quality management.

The project also seeks to enhance the capacity of NBSSI Business Advisors and Private Business Development Services (BDS) providers in standards and quality as well as food safety management systems. This will enable them to give advice to entrepreneurs and help them to meet international standards and requirements.

In all, 199 participants are expected to benefit from this programme -- made up of 134 staff of the NBSSI Institution, 15 Private BDS Providers and 50 micro and small scale enterprises.

The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) is the apex Governmental Institution for the promotion and development of the Micro and Small Enterprises sector in Ghana.

Under the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI), the NBSSI was established by an Act of Parliament (Act 434 of 1981) with the core objectives of contributing to the creation of an enabling environment to MSEs development and deepening the development of an enterprise culture, as well as facilitating MSEs’ access to substantial and high quality Business Development Services (BDS) for their development.

The Board is also expected to facilitate access to credit for MSEs and promote MSE-sector associations.