The activity is being supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and supports 75 businesses each from the Upper East, North-East, Upper West and Northern regions.

As part of the support to the beneficiary MSMEs, they received free business certificates, merchant SIM registration, record-keeping booklets, as well as capacity-building training on best business practices.

The USAID-funded Ghana Market Systems and Resilience Activity (MSR) is a five-year, $35.9M follow-on project to USAID/Ghana ADVANCE II. MSR will leverage over a decade of experience linking smallholders to markets, inputs and services in Ghana.

At a ceremony to present business certificates to 75 MSMEs in Bolgatanga, the Capacity Building Team Lead for the MSR Activity, Musa Salifu Taylor, indicated that if businesses were not registered and formalised, it led to limited markets.

He stated that as part of the project, they thought it wise to begin the journey with the MSMEs by assisting them to register their businesses so that they would be able to improve them for their own benefit.

He charged them to build a mutually beneficial relationship with the Business Resource Centre (BRC) and other service providers to improve their firms.

Needs assessment

The Women and Youth Entrepreneurship Specialist, Feed the Future Ghana MSR Activity, Gifty Akapule, said a needs assessment conducted on 241 MSMEs revealed that about 71 per cent operated informally without business certificates.

She stated that such a situation hindered the businesses from accessing huge markets to sustain their respective trades, saying: “Through the project, we decided to formalise 300 MSMEs in the beneficiary regions for them to operate formally.”

She explained that one of the requirements for MSMEs to have access to credit facilities from financial institutions was a business certificate and proper record keeping, adding: “We believe that the support provided to them will enable them to receive financial support to run their businesses.”

She implored the beneficiaries to properly manage their business for them to stand the test of time and to contribute to the growth and development of the informal sector in the country.

Other speakers

A consultant to the project, Ephrem Duorinaa, encouraged them to continue building upon what they had learned, to innovate and to collaborate with others to transform their trades.

While commending USAID and its partners for the project, he called for continuous collaboration among stakeholders towards creating a future where every MSME had the opportunity to thrive.

An official at the Upper East Regional Office, Ghana Standards Authority, Enoch Akortia, urged them to act with integrity and contribute to the continued advancement of their respective businesses and contribute to the growth of the national economy.