GEA gets new office complex to inspire hope for MSMEs

A NEW ultra-modern office complex meant to inspire hope for the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector in the country has been built in Accra.

The three-storey edifice is expected to accommodate the national secretariat of the Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA) to efficiently manage small businesses towards a new historic journey.

The project was undertaken by the government with funding secured from the World Bank through the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).

It brings to an end all the preparation to develop a bigger entity out of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) which used to be a pale shadow of the MSME sector in the country.

With this structure, the institution can now be impactful by charting a new path in the next phase of its historical journey to promote and develop businesses in the MSMEs space.

Renewed hope

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra ahead of the inauguration of the new edifice, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, stated that the new GEA office complex would offer renewed hope to support the development of MSMEs across the country.

She explained that there was the need for the GEA to have a facelift that represents the outlook the government envisaged for MSMEs, a critical sector of the economy.

“We need to look like the path we want to take for the MSMEs sector to propel transformation and growth. Unlike our old structure which was a far cry from reality, this new structure is to offer hope for the sector.”

“This house is an MSME house and any firm in the sector can walk in. And so, if we want our MSMEs to do well and increase productivity, the GEA must appear better to inspire not only its staff but the MSMEs as well,” she added.

Transformation

The CEO said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government perceived MSMEs as significant to help accelerate the economic development of the country.

She said it was for this reason that the government since 2017 has taken steps to transform the sector by converting the NBSSI into the GEA.

“This institution when we took over had structures but was not well established enough and no really clear direction as to how to make it happen.”

“And so, in the last seven years we have tried very hard to figure out all the possible measures and mechanisms to be put in place to make what you see here today happen,” she said.