The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) have signed an agreement to scale-up Ghana’s national initiatives on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) promotion.

The Project is aligned to the Government of Ghana’s Industrial Transformation Agenda as well as the National MSME and Entrepreneurship Policy.

Since 2012, Ghana has promoted Kaizen practices – a Japanese methodology and philosophy to sustainably and continually improve quality and productivity of businesses.

Hundreds of Ghanaian enterprises have been introduced to the Kaizen Principles and they have suceeded in the application and subsequent improvement in their quality and productivity.

To enhance the developmental impact at industry and national levels, Ghana will scale up this initiative, to further enhance the competitiveness of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

The Project would also provide support to the recently launched Business Resource Centres (BRCs) established across the country.

In a bid to support Ghana to scale up its National Kaizen Initiative, UNIDO launched the Project for Expanding the Kaizen initiative by enhancing sustainable agribusiness.

UNIDO Digital Dashboard System

The Project will introduce the UNIDO Digital Dashboard System “Smart and Sustainable Agri-Business (SSAB)”, enabling Ghanaian MSMEs to visualize and hence better manage their enterprise performance through a smart and digital Platform.

By collecting key performance indicators from the production site, SSAB will not only address productivity issues, but will also improve resource efficiency, food safety compliance as well as performnce of the MSMEs from a social perspective.

This three-Year Project will be implemented by UNIDO in collaboration with the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), with funding from the Japanese Government.

The launching ceremony was hosted by the Minister for Trade and Industry, Hon. Alan John Kwadwo Kyerematen, and attended by the Japanese Ambassador to Ghana, Hisanobu Mochizuki, UNIDO Representative to Ghana and Liberia, Fakhruddin Azizi, CEO of GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, Directors of MOTI and GEA, and other stakeholders.

Available data from the Registrar General’s Department of Ghana indicates that about 90% of businesses registered in Ghana are MSMEs. These enterprises have been identified by Government as the means through which its Industrial Transformation Agenda and other development goals of the country can be realised.

The MSME and Entrepreneurship Policy is composed of a myriad of carefully structured policy prescriptions aimed at reforming the MSME sector and harmonizing government interventions to create sustainable growth pillars for the sector.