Private sector businesses are highly expectant of the numerous interventions announced to propel their growth for this year.
The reduction in utility tariffs, tax reliefs for selected businesses are but a few of their expectations.
Key on the agenda for this government is to empower the private sector with policies and conditions favorable, not only to lead the growth of the economy, but also to assume the role as the greatest employer.
To this end, the National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan (NEIP) and the National Business Plan Competition were launched in July last year in which government contributed US$10 million as seed money for the plan.
In the same year, the Ministry of Trade and Industry also stated that, government is working towards rolling out an SME policy aimed at addressing the various challenges confronting SMEs.
According to the ministry, the policy is necessary in order to grow the capacity of players in the SME space.
Team Leader for Industrial Sub Contract and Partnership Exchange at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Papa Bartels told Citi Business News he is hopeful the plan will boost the growth of the SME subsector.
“If you look at the SME space, we have a huge number of enterprises in this country involved in SME’s and if there is chaos in that front it will not auger well for the development of enterprises that are small and medium so looking at that government is rolling out an SM Policy and that will look at all the issues that confront SMEs in the country”, Mr. Bartels said.
The CEO of the Private Enterprise Federation, Nana Osei Bonsu described it a as laudable step taken to achieve a private sector led economy.
“So yes a policy framework which addresses some of the things that are itemized will be a welcome opportunity”
“Whether they can address all the challenges that might be stretching the capacity or the ability of that policy to achieve but at least it will be in the right direction if these challenges are identified with some interventions that will relieve the private sector of some of the constrains”
The CEO of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), Seth Twum Akwaboah told Citi Business News that policies for the private sector should tackle the grass root of their problems in order for them to be effective.
“We all know the challenges of SMEs so if your policies will not address the needs of the SMEs, then of course it will not work. So for example, if access to finance, medium to long term funding is a problem then the SME policy should look at that ,I know government focuses on industrialization and that is why AGI is working very close with government to make sure that the initiatives they have are well implemented.
He added that government should also focus on reducing the country’s imports.
“If you want to promote industrialization you need to look at your imports and what policies you have around it such that you can reduce your imports and then you can increase local production,” he said.
Nana Osei Bonsu is also convinced of achieving the targets through collaboration with the private sector businesses.
“We don’t like consultation, we want to be involved in the grass root discussions of the technical companies of that framework. Consultation is,— you cook the food and bring it to the table and ask what do you think, we want to be involved from the scratch”.
He added, “The private sector is the one on the ground and they see the challenges, so if you want to develop a frame work, we want to be a partt on the table to be able to engage in the dialogue that will influence or enrich the directive that we are looking to achieve the objective of enhancing private sector productivity,” he said.
–
By: Anita Arthur/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana
