The Minister of Trade and Industry, Haruna Iddrisu, says government is stepping up efforts to supporting Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to improve and promote their businesses.
He has also pledged President John Mahama’s determination commitment to create a conducive environment for the private sector, and also to promote public private partnership to ensure economic growth.
Mr Iddrisu was speaking at a Business Development Services (BDS) forum organised by the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) in collaboration with the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) for its stakeholders and MSEs in Accra.
The Minister of Trade and Industry Haruna Iddrisu said plans are far advanced to establish a National Youth Entrepreneurs Fund to support Ghanaian youth in entrepreneurship.
He said government is poised to ensure the realisation of the Better Ghana Agenda through youth empowerment.
Executive Director of NBSSI, Abdul Rahim-Lukman, said the forum is aimed at collating views of participants to improve on the quality and productivity of SMEs in the country.
He said the project is also to formulate a strategic model for quality and productivity through strengthening of SMEs.
Mr Lukman said the project which is for a three-year period, started in April 2012 and currently being piloted in the Ashanti Region.
The Chief Representative of JICA, Koji Makino, said the programme is a practice-oriented strategy which can be implemented to improve businesses in a step-by-step approach.