The Small, Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country plays an integral role in the overall economic progress of the country and with the rapid spread of digital technologies disrupting production and trade it has presented both opportunities and challenges.
It is widely recognized that digitalization has unleashed a new wave of innovation that will have profound implications for humanity, changing relationships between citizens, Governments and businesses, and that will alter the structure of societies and economies.
Sustainable development is dependent on productivity and human development and will increasingly be determined by the level of integration into the digital economy.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, digitalization and frontier technologies not only create new opportunities for doing business, they also bring about a number of challenges and risks.
“Digital technologies and platforms can reduce transaction costs for businesses and facilitate access to new customers, both in domestic and foreign markets. For example, suppliers that rely more on e-commerce may be able to cut delivery costs, especially for digitally provided content”.
Indeed, digitalization can enhance the productivity of enterprises and offer new opportunities for entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation. But how is Ghana leveraging on such golden opportunity to ensure full scale benefits by SMEs in the country?
The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) last year opened up an application portal for Micro, Small and Medium enterprises to seek support for their innovation and digitalization drive.
The scheme initiated by the National Board for Small Scale Industries was in partnership with the German Cooperation’s ‘Invest for Jobs’ (an initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development).
Following the havoc of the Covid 19 on physical businesses, the NBSSI said the move was expected to equip more than five hundred MSMEs in the country to have their businesses online and make use of digital channels.
Executive Director of the Board, Kosi Yankey Ayeh said that the scheme will be a relief for small businesses that were affected by the outbreak of the virus.
However, there are growing concerns that new technologies will disrupt entire industries, widen existing income inequalities and lead to a further concentration of power and wealth.
With the increased scope for computerization, automatization and the use of artificial intelligence, more occupations and tasks may disappear, even as output and productivity rise, bringing higher returns to capital.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Giddins Innove, Mr. Gideon Dendzo, speaking in an interview on January 20, 2021, however, said in the pandemic season, having the ability to go digital became a matter of life and death worldwide and many SMEs which showed their ability to change their business models survived.
He said the situation had created an unprecedented reliance on digitalization such that his company took advantage of the lockdown to engage its customers through digital / social media platforms such as WhatsApp.
“What really helped us was that we had a recovery product realizing that weddings, work and other events were on the low and so people did not need shoes, though at any point in time they need footwear.
“So, we paused production for shoes and did more of slippers, and handbags too, though not much. We had to re-strategise and do what people would need”.
