Flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has revealed as part of his manifesto promises his resolve to boost the creation of small business associations (SBA).
According to him, this will help disseminate and promote good business practice which will largely contribute to the growth of businesses and also create seamless registration processes in relation to compliance
“We will encourage the creation of small business associations (SBAs) to help disseminate and promote good business practices that contribute to high efficiency, increased profits, and expanded opportunities for job creation by SMEs, assist the sector through continuous simplification of compliance processes, such as registration, environmental regulations and tax payment”.
He made this revelation at the launch of the party’s 2020 manifesto ahead of the December 7 polls, with the event taking place at the University of Professional Studies, Accra.
The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), responsible for the disbursement of stimulus packages to challenged businesses in the country also caught the eye of the flagbearer who expressed his intent to strengthen the Board.
John Dramani Mahama indicated that he will “strengthen the capacity of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) to assist SMEs by facilitating their growth and development in every corner of the country [and] provide special financial support to market women and entrepreneurs”.
As part of his pledge to foster growth within the business fraternity, John Mahama further stressed the need to ensure a much more robust sector through the provision of tax holidays to startups.
“Grant tax holidays to start-ups and SMEs to facilitate their growth and expansion, require district assemblies to provide markets, lorry parks, and other areas of local, business activities monthly reports of revenue collected and how they spent them for the benefit of the tax payers”.
Dubbed, the ‘People’s Manifesto: Jobs, Prosperity and more’, the document also captured the informal sector, with which the NDC propagated their determination to formalize the informal sector as “the next NDC Government will work towards formalizing the informal economy, which accounts for about 90.0 per cent of employment but only about 30.0 per cent of overall economic output or GDP”.
Commenting on the various policies, he noted that they will undoubtedly help small and medium scale enterprises to “raise their productivity, get access to business support services, and create more and better jobs with various degrees of legal and social protection as well as compliance with health and safety regulations”.
Without mincing words Dramani Mahama stressed that, the next NDC Government will work together with related sectors and stakeholders to increase demand for locally manufactured goods “by encouraging the private sector to establish marketing companies to service local SME manufacturers. Assisting SMEs to upgrade technology to enhance their competitiveness, actively promoting Made-in-Ghana goods, directing Ministries, Departments and Agencies to patronize Made-in-Ghana goods, modernizing our markets using the Kejetia market complex model”.
