He said this would help SMEs make sense of disruptive innovation to ensure that the right technology was incorporated across all business processes.

Mr. Adiyiah made the call at the launch of the third annual International Conference on Business management and Entrepreneurial Development (ICBMED) in Accra.

The conference, which was on the theme, ‘Small and medium scale enterprise development in Africa; Information Communication Technology as a strategic tool”, brought together IT experts and resource persons from Ghana, South Africa and Norway.

It sought to equip participants with the skills and importance of infusing IT in their establishments.

ICBMED every year selects a challenging issue and provides the forum to interrogate the issue and propose research based solutions.

The conference also sought to build one of the eminent global intellectual and professional platforms dedicated to discussing, analysing, and advancing solutions to the challenges facing the development of African businesses through business and management research and information dissemination.

Mr. Adiyiah explained that one of the reasons that SMEs do not grow was the lack of innovation in the development of digital strategies.

“SMEs have ignored the role of ICT and as a result don’t grow. Sadly the SMEs serve as a bedrock of our economy but they do not grow because they do not adopt technology effectively,”he said.

He said global trends were transforming economies and the digital revolution and technological changes were forcing SMEs to do business differently because it had become a matter of survival.

“However, SMEs in the country are not taking advantage and exploiting the power of mobile technology, amongst others,” he added.

Mr. Adiyiah advised young entrepreneurs to leverage the use of social media to promote their businesses.

He added that institutions, as a matter of policy for government should start as early as possible the fusion of intermediary to advanced ICT in schools to prepare students to cultivate the habit, and knowledge to write programmes to address business problems.

According to Mr. Adiyiah, this would promote the use of ICT or digital technology to analyse and formulate business strategy and sustain competitive advantage.

Prof Abednego Okoe Feehi Amartey, Vice Chancellor, UPSA said that ICT was an effective and efficient tool that could aid in fast-tracking Africa’s strive for development.

“We must appreciate the strategic role of ICT in development, and leverage on its strategy advantage,” he said.GNA