Invest In Africa
INVEST IN Africa (IIA), a not-for-profit organization, has partnered the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) to build the long-term procurement capacities of 50 high potential SMEs under its Home Grown Buyers (HGB) project.
According to Country Director of IIA, Clarence Nartey, IIA’s HGB project was aimed, among others, at driving inclusive growth among suppliers and buyers in its business ecosystem, facilitating local business opportunities worth $50 million among Ghanaian SMEs and improving the competitiveness of high potential SMEs for intra-African trade.
He said to qualify as a home grown buyer, businesses must have 50 per cent Ghanaian ownership, should have benefited from any of IIA’s three (3) programmes i.e. access to markets, skills and finance, operate within IIA‘s six (6) priority sectors, namely Financial Services, Agri-business, Construction, Oil & Gas, Mining and ICT, demonstrate a clear desire to scale up their businesses and have a local procurement budget of over $200,000.
Commenting on the partnership, Duncan Broack, Group Director, CIPS said, “The selected SMEs will gain enormously from the training programme. CIPS qualifications are recognized globally as the drivers of leading-edge thinking and professionalism in procurement and supply, and we are delighted in the opportunity to impart these skills to suppliers working with IIA.”
Under the partnership, CIPS will work with these SMEs to provide best in-class procurement practices by getting them to undertake a CIPS Skills Gap Assessment which will benchmark their current procurement skills /practices against a Global Standard (of 11 competencies). Thereafter, IIA will work with CIPS and other procurement consultants/mentors to provide bespoke interventions to close identified gaps.
CIPS has appointed Harley Reed (Ghana) Ltd, a firm of professionals who provide a wide range of integrated professional services to undertake the training. Upon completion of the two-day training programme, the suppliers shall receive a CIPS certificate of attendance and be entitled to one year CIPS membership with all the accompanying benefits.
In addition to the above, HGB will also benefit from IIA-sponsored interventions to improve their Go-to-Market capabilities, help them access relevant debt and equity financing solutions, enjoy free business profiling/advertising on key media platforms, as well as receive mentorship from senior business leaders in the IIA partnership network.