The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has been elevated into a bigger entity to be known as the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA).

It will enable the new entity to become more impactful by coordinating the micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector to ensure efficient and promote the development and growth of MSMEs in the country.

This follows the passage of the Ghana Enterprises Agency Bill, 2020 into an Act on Tuesday, November 3, by a unanimous decision in Parliament.

Consequently, an MSME fund is expected to be established to enable businesses under the SMEs category to have access to cheaper sources of funds to enhance their operations.

Legal framework

The Executive Director of NBSSI, Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, in an interview with the Graphic Online on the development, said the new Act will provide the framework for the establishment of GEA.

As a result, a national MSME and entrepreneurial policy has also been developed by the current government to spearhead the development of MSMEs in the country.

“Successive governments tried to come up with a policy that would drive growth in the MSME space but none succeeded, and so the significance of this newly developed policy should not be underestimated.

“The national MSME policy, among other things, will allow the government to collect data on the MSME space and use that data to design intervention for the sector.

“The policy together with the Act to provide the framework for the establishment of EGA will be implemented by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI).”

About NBSSI

Before the passage of the new Act, the NBSSI was a non-profit public sector organisation under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Presidential Special Initiatives which came into being in 1985.

It has its head office in Accra, with secretariats in all the regional capitals and Business Advisory Centres in most of the district capitals.

Services offered by the NBSSI include business development services for micro and small enterprises.