The Ministry of Trade and Industry has pledged to strengthen partnership with the private sector to grow Ghana’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) sector, which remains vital to the country’s economic outlook.

A Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah Adjei, speaking during the launch of the ACET Business Transform which aims to develop and accelerate carefully selected SMEs for the global market, stressed that the government “will extend needed partnerships and investments. We will build on the great successes we have had in the last four years by scaling up the technology to reach these and many other SMEs.”

“We continue to act with dispatch to add value to what we produce and also provide creative and high-tech opportunities for massive youth engagement in agro-processing, light manufacturing, recycling, among others. Our priority is for businesses to use their skills innovatively in a commercial environment that is regionally accepted.”
ADVERTISEMENT

In Ghana, SMEs account for over 90 percent of all registered businesses and generate more than 90 percent of employment.

SMEs are creators of jobs for Ghana’s rapidly growing workforce, as they have the potential to generate close to half a million jobs every year. Unfortunately, many of these businesses do not survive long enough to create these jobs.

The African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET’s) Business Transform program aims to help SMEs successfully navigate the business development market to access the back and front office support they need to demonstrate their viability as companies.

The first edition of the program will see ten Ghanaian businesses benefit from the guidance of technical partners and the mentorship of well-connected business executives and global leaders.

Mavis Owusu Gyamfi, the Executive Vice President of the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET), speaking to Citi Business News on the sidelines of the event, outlined her outfit’s plans for the selected SMEs in the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“We want to build these companies to a level where they can compete in Ghana and tap into value chains. So for example, there’s a gentleman who’s providing industrial cassava. If we can help him to develop and grow, he can sell to North and East Africa and can really take advantage of the AfCFTA. It can even set up sub factories in these countries and tap into the natural resource base to expand,” she said.

Below is the list of the ten businesses that make up the first Business Transform cohort:

1. Big Bond Roofing Systems Limited
2. Groital Company Limited
3. Homefoods Processing and Cannery Limited
4. Maxtachem Limited
5. Melach Coconut Processing Farm
6. Nelplast Eco Ghana Limited
7. Saliscom Limited
8. Sky-3 Investment Limited
9. Skylink Agro Solutions
10. Solar Taxi Limited