The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has announced its intention to support all Micro Small and Medium-scaled Enterprises (MSMEs) in Ghana with $3.9 million, which is aimed at enhancing their operations.
According to the Project Manager in Charge of Food Security and Food System Unit, Marin Mizuno, this support programme is aimed at scaling up Ghana’s national initiative on MSMEs.
Acquiring proper enterprise performance management skill, according to the project manager is crucial to the sustainability of MSMEs and enterprises growth, hence, the need for the government of Japan to sustainably and continually improve quality and productivity of businesses in Ghana.
“We have received $3.9 million as our project fund, out of which we will be reaching out to MSMEs. We are talking about hundreds of Ghanaian enterprises to provide support in terms of productivity management, quality management, efficiency of internal resources.”
Marin Mizuno
The main focus of the project is on the manufacturing sector because this is where the enterprise performance management, as well as the Kaizen can be applied, Mr. Mizuno iterated.
Particularly, he added that the project will be focused on agribusinesses as they have a higher implication in terms of resource sufficiency, environmental sustainability and also social development.
Touching on the implications of agribusinesses on social development, the project manager explained thus; “many of the enterprises, agribusinesses are based not only in the city center but are spread into the rural areas“, thus emphasizing the strength of the social factor in agribusiness and why it is the main focus of the project.
Also at the support program launch was the Coordinator of the Embassy of Japan, Tetsuya Imaoka, and he revealed that the philosophy of the Kaizen is to enhance the performance of enterprises by maximizing their efficiencies with available resources, rather than resorting to huge capital investments.
“I believe Japanese technology, experience and wisdom through a variety of methodologies and approaches is exactly what is needed in Ghana, especially for micro, small and medium enterprises, as we go through a very difficult time.”
Tetsuya Imaoka
The $3.9 million support promises to stimulate the national expansion drive of MSMEs in Ghana
Chief Executive Officer for the Ghana Enterprises Agency, Kosi Yankey Ayeh stated that the project is going to stimulate the national expansion drive for MSMEs with emphasis on production efficiency, food safety and compliance to make them more efficient and competitive.
“The Kaizen intervention is an intervention that was designed by the Japanese to support the manufacturing businesses and industries. And what we’ve done over the past few years, over 7-8 years now has been really implementing Kaizen in businesses across the length and breadth of the country. Now, over the years, we realized that there was the need to expand this intervention across the country and focus on agribusinesses and how to sustain those businesses.
“So this new project, which is funded by JICA and is being implemented by UNIDO and Ghana Enterprises Agency, is supposed to support these agribusinesses by providing them with the technical assistance and knowledge to be able to build their businesses. Alongside that is what they call the SSAB, which is a technology platform that will help businesses understand their productivity improvements, based on the interventions that we provide for them.”
Yankey Ayeh
The call for proposal for the support program will be opened until April 30,2023 for the enterprises to apply, after which the selection for the final nomination of the enterprises to be supported under the programme will be duly conducted .
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