‘Decentralise business support services’

THE Programme Specialist at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ms Christy Ahenkora Banya, has called on the country’s oversight institutions on business investments to decentralise their activities to enable prospective investors to easily access their services in the regions.
Ms Banya said the over-concentration of institutions, such as the Registrar General’s Department, in Accra did not encourage entrepreneurs to invest outside Accra, adding that “that is why we have virtually all the businesses springing up in Accra alone.”
Speaking at a roundtable discussion organised by Shear Power Ventures (SPV), a community-based advocacy group, Ms Banya asked, “why do I have to relocate to Tamale, Bolga and the likes when I have to go back to Accra to sign any piece of paper that I would need for my business activities?”
She further called on the district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies to open up their doors to investors wishing to set up businesses in their areas of jurisdiction.
Shear Ventures, which also organises the ‘Portrait of an Excellent Woman Award,’ was using the roundtable discussion to forge stronger and more rewarding partnerships between business development, community and the government.
The Acting Director, Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Mrs Monica Asare, who represented the sector's minister at the function, said the ministry's Trade and Industrial Policy which was "being finalised" for a launch was focused on helping women entrepreneurs in key sectors of the economy to affect the processing and trading outputs of rural-based agricultural producers.
According to her, the policy, when implement, would have "enough room for the economic empowerment of women" in the country.
She noted that government would be using the said policy “to encourage the provision of affordable business development services to female entrepreneurs and to develop the needed lending programmes for women and low income earners engaged in industrial activities.”
That, she observed, was necessary to help encourage the provision of affordable business development services to female entrepreneurs in the country.
The programme was attended by representatives from the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and some of previous winners of the ‘Portrait of an Excellent Woman Award.’