Richmond Tetteh
The Association of Small Scale Industries (ASSI) has stated that government’s inability to adequately resource the National Board For Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has prevented the board from addressing the needs of small businesses.
According to the Association, NBSSI, which has the mandate to promote the growth and development of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), has been relegated to the background due to low budgetary allocation and the lack of political will to enforce the enabling legislation.
Richmond Tetteh, President of ASSI disclosed this at a press conference in Accra to highlight the findings of a report aimed at examining the challenges of NBSSI.
He also stated the association’s position on the 2012 Budget.
ASSI engaged KAB Governance Consult, a consultancy firm based in Accra, to examine the challenges of NBSSI and make recommendations to the appropriate authorities for redress.
Mr. Tetteh said the study revealed that “over a 12 year period spanning 1999 to 2010, the NBSSI’s service budget was found to be low with the highest amount released being GH¢318,390 in year 2006. This represented 39.8 per cent of the budgetary request.”
He said the “period was when the Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS) was supposed to be the basis for resource allocation.”
He said NBSSI has been relegated to the background and parallel and well-funded institutions are made to perform core aspects of the NBSSI’s mandate and also virtually deal with the same target groups.
“Typical examples of such parallel structures are the Rural Enterprises Project (REP), modules of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), and the more recent Local Enterprise and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP),” Mr. Tetteh emphasised.
He indicated that “the November 8, 2011 edition of the Ghanaian Times also reported that the Government had made a commitment of 63.5 million dollars to the Rural Enterprises Project as part of its 185 million dollars budget for the next eight years. MASLOC has also been allotted 35 million cedis under the 2012 Budget.”
The report recommended that “Cabinet should reconsider as a matter of urgency the present approach of setting up parallel bodies for the promotion of the micro and small-scale enterprises sector without recourse to the mandate of the NBSSI.”
He appealed to the Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning, Trade and Industry and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Trade and Industry, to ensure that NBSSI is effectively resourced to enable it address the myriad challenges of small scale entrepreneurs.
The NBSSI was set up in 1985 following the passage of an enabling Act in 1981. It merged with the Ghanaian Enterprises Development Commission in 1991 and absorbed the Cottage Industries Division of the Department of Rural Housing and Cottage Industries in 1994.
 By Esther Awuah
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