The Dean of the School of Graduate Studies of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Professor Goski Alabi, has underscored the need for the country to boost the competence of its local entrepreneurs to enable them to support the socio-economic growth of the country.
According to her, the economy would only transform when entrepreneurs in the country were supported and given the needed attention.
“If we cannot create entrepreneurs then there is no way our economy will be transformed,” Professor Alabi said at the maiden edition of the International Conference on Business Management and Entrepreneurial Development at the UPSA.
Conference
The two-day business conference was on the theme, “Management of Small Medium Enterprises (SMES): Issues, Challenges and Opportunities.”
The faculty of management of the UPSA partnered the Graphic Business, Beige Capital, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust, Galaxy Oil, Tradezone International, Wealth Vision Financial Limited, Nestle Ghana Limited and Special Ice to organise the conference for the final-year students of the school.
Sector challenges
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Beige Capital Savings and Loans Limited said even though there were a handful of SMEs in the country, access to credit was a major challenge the sector was facing in the country.
“With businesses being the driving force of every economy, one will expect countries with the highest number of operational businesses to be the largest contributors to the global economy,” he said.
“The stark reality, however, is that this continent is a net creditor of capital to the rest of the world. Capital is scarce on this continent and each time it flows in, it comes at such a high cost,” he noted.
According to him, the limited amount available was what was being competed for by the government and big corporations as well as SMEs, where the SMEs, he said, were often dwarfed by both the government and the big corporations for many reasons.
“If the SMEs are lucky to get a share, it comes at such an exorbitant borrowing cost which does not make business sense to them,” he added.
He said the introduction of SME banking and the upsurge of the micro finance companies was an innovative way the financial market had responded to the major problems in recent times.