A bill to oversee, coordinate, promote and develop Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country has been unanimously passed by Parliament.
The Ghana Enterprises Agency Bill, 2020, when assented to, will convert the National Board for Small Scale Industry (NBSSI) into an Agency and will provide an appropriate institutional and legal framework for the coordination of the promotion of programmes and projects for the development of the MSME sector in Ghana.
The bill was presented to Parliament by the Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Robert Ahomka-Lindsay on behalf of the sector minister in the House on Tuesday, October 20, 2020.
It contains a total number of 35 Clauses with Clauses 1-3 providing for the establishment of the Ghana Enterprises Agency, Clauses 4-12 provide for the governance of the Agency, and Clauses 13-20 deal with administration of the Agency.
Clauses 21-25 deal with the finances of the Agency, Clauses 26-30 provide for the establishment of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Fund and Clauses 31-35 provide for miscellaneous matters.
The NBSSI was established by an Act of Parliament of the Third Republic of Ghana, NBSSI Act, 1981 (Act 434) and operationalised in 1985 to promote and develop the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE).
In the 1990s, the Cottage Industries and Rural Housing Department and the Ghana Enterprise Development Commission (specifically dedicated to all Ghanaian owned enterprises in Ghana – including Micro, Small, Medium and Large Enterprises) were subsumed under the NBSSI as part of efforts to defragment MSME support initiatives in Ghana.
NBSSI has also expanded its presence across the country through the establishment of district level Business Advisory Centres and Business Resource Centres in strategic locations in the country.
The NBBSI Act specifies “Small Scale Industries” as the focus of operations of NBSSI. This was a relevant classification at the time of the enactment. However, globally, the emphasis has changed from Small Scale Industries to Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME) which represents the entire continuum of enterprises that are not large scale firms.
The MSME and Entrepreneurship policy, which has been developed, reflects this change which in practice is the target group of NBSSI.
The government said in addition, a number of functions specified in the NBBSI Act has become obsolete or impracticable to execute, and that the MSME sector is also highly uncoordinated as various stakeholders made up of Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, private sector associations, NGOs and development partners are involved in the development of programmes aimed at supporting the MSME sector in Ghana.
Taking cognizance of this situation, the MSME and Entrepreneurship policy prescribes the conversion of the NBSSI into an Agency whose objectives will include overseeing, coordinating, promoting and developing Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Mr. Ahomka-Lindsay said the legal framework would make the NBSSI effective in assisting the MSMEs to grow.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House