Finance Factory (FIFACT) has launched Small Business Support Project in Ghana. The project is with the support of National Service Secretariat (NSS), National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP) and Tradeline Consult Ltd.

The project aims at creating jobs and relevant experience for young graduates. It will also help small and growing businesses to strengthen their operations.

Tradeline will develop robust, scalable and profitable businesses to attract investments for MSMEs, while NSS will support with the deployment of the graduates.

NEIP will offload the SMEs of the YouStart Program to FIFACT as part of its sustainability plan. Thus, while NSS deploys young BDOs, NEIP will deploy SMEs to FIFACT.

FIFACT will train 1,600 National Service Personnel as Business Development Officers (BDOs). They will work across sectors including agriculture, health, education, renewable energy and IT.

The project will target 55% of female participation to enhance gender inclusion. The project will allow each BDO to work with up to 20 MSMEs. Accordingly, it will target working with a total of 32,000 businesses in five years. With an average of 3 jobs per business, the project will create a total of 96,000 indirect jobs over the period.

Ghana's growing workforce requires prioritization of MSME development. This will lead to formalizing their operations to absorb the thousands of graduates. New realties created by recent global crisis is generating buzz across several sectors. To survive, these start-ups and SMEs need support to adapt to good business practices.

It is important to address the high informality in the business ecosystem of Ghana. That is one sure way for Ghana's economy to develop. Lack of Finance is one of the most cited obstacles facing SMEs. This leads to some operational challenges and inefficiencies.

Some of these challenges are poor structures and lack of management skills. Also, high loan default rates, poor records and accounting systems obstruct their businesses.

Besides creating jobs, beneficiary businesses will get the opportunity to overcome growth challenges. Also, small businesses will have access to specific business development and management services. This will be through various phases of their development at a cost affordable to them.

FIFACT will empower MSMEs to access investment and financing opportunities through the BDOs. The support includes a wide array of strategic and operational business services. These services include business training, consultancy and advisory services. Others are marketing, information technology development and technology transfer. Besides, SMEs need management of accounts, tax records and compliance with labour laws.

FIFACT is partnering with relevant stakeholders to establish 16 regional "Tradeline Business Hubs" to provide business advisory services to SMEs.