To strengthen and empower the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to remain competitive, the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) will hold a forum dubbed "The Chamber SME Business Forum" in Accra.

The Forum to be held on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, is on the theme: "Redefining Business Success: The Case of SMEs in Ghana."

The forum aims to provide a high-level platform for CEOs and Entrepreneurs of SMEs, Industry Experts and Policy Makers to deliberate on topical issues and make policy recommendations, relating to the sustainable growth and development of SMEs in Ghana as well as explore new business partnerships.

Mr Mark Badu-Aboagye, the Chief Executive Officer, GNCCI in an interview with the GNA ahead of the event, said before the COVID-19, SMEs were doing well but the pandemic had hit them hard, eventually making some collapse.

He said those even operating currently were operating under capacity, because they were very weak in terms of finance and total output.

The CEO said generally, SMEs contributed about 70 per cent to the country's Gross Domestic Product, adding that almost 92 per cent of all businesses in Ghana were SMEs.

"The contribution of the SMEs are massive and largely about 94 per cent of total employment are been done by the private sector of which SMEs play a critical role," he said.

Mr Badu-Aboagye said the disruptions and opportunities wrought by the pandemic have exposed the need to re-assess strategies critically to chart the path towards building SME Competitiveness via business value, resilience and sustainability.

"A return to "business as usual" cannot thrive in this "new normal" and businesses will be required to re-engineer their approach along the axis of people-planet-profit," he added.

He said SMEs need capacity building in their operations such as corporate governance, financial management, value chain and supply chain management and digitalisation.

On expected outcomes, the CEO said it would increase awareness of the strategies critical for building SME Competitiveness.

He said it would also have policy gaps identified for subsequent stakeholder engagement and advocacy and have areas of collaboration for value-adding projects and partnerships for SME growth and development.