The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) is partnering with Mastercard Foundation and other firms to deliver a strong micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector to support the country’s economy.

Already, the NBSSI with support from partners is running over 13 projects that will help in the realisation of a resilient MSMEs sector that will support the government’s job creation agenda.

The projects range from targeted support for women, youth and the vulnerable groups in the society as well as conscious efforts in the green economy-production and employment.

The SME clinic

The Executive Director of NBSSI, Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, who made this known at an SMEs clinic organised by the Graphic Business and Access Bank Ghana in Accra, said the mandate of the board was to provide business development support to MSMEs.

“We needed to collaborate with other partners to introduce a number of interventions to support the growth of MSMEs and so through our partnership with Mastercard Foundation and other firms, we have implemented many programmes,” she said.

Dubbed: Graphic Business/Access Bank SME Clinic, the maiden edition is to provide the needed support in diverse ways that can help alleviate SMEs from the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

As part of the initiative, most of the participating businesses were provided with business advisory support to help improve their operations.

It hosted speakers such as the Group Head of Business Banking at Access Bank, Mr Kafui Bimpe; the Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries, Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Mr Seth Twum-Akwaboah.

Young Africa Works

Mrs Yankey-Ayeh indicated that the implementation of the Young Africa Works was a partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.

She said the objective of the project hinges on three key components which seeks to create access to dignified and fulfilling jobs for 39,000 youth with 70 per cent being women.

She observed that the introduction Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (ICE) was to support 25,000 graduate youth and school drop-outs but with innovative business ideas to launch into entrepreneurship and or chart the pathway of employment.

According to her, the Apprenticeship to Entrepreneurship (A2E) seeks to support 8,000 young men and women with vocational and technical skills through apprenticeship training and provide them with start-up kits to start their own businesses and link them to employment opportunities.

Kaizen project

She stated that the MSME Business Acceleration (MBA), also seeks to accelerate 2000 women businesses through Kaizen (productivity increase and quality improvement), access to market, access to finance, regulatory support and employment creation

“We also have the Nkosuo Pogramme, this another partnership with the Mastercard Foundation to support MSMEs directly affected by COVID-19 with funds to relieve and enable businesses recover from the shocks of COVID-19.

“We have other financial institutions that are willing to support the NBSSI’s efforts at reaching the unbanked by providing innovative marketing platforms, cashless accounts and on top of it more funding to support the operations of the over one million MSMEs in our database,” she added.