Habiba Sumani granting an interview
The Director of Entrepreneurship Development at the National Board Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Habiba Sumani, has urged entrepreneurs to refute perceptions which suggest that formalising businesses will give government agencies the needed information to disrupt their businesses.
While it may be true that businesses may shut down due to non-compliance with certain requirements or regulations, the making of businesses visible through formalisation, she noted, comes with enormous benefits as it, among other things, helps in comprehensive data collection for proper planning of policies and interventions by the government.
“People tend to shy away from formalising based on what they have seen or heard from peers who have had their businesses shut down due to non-compliance,” she said.
She, for instance, explained that micro, small and medium-scale enterprises (MSME) with certification from NBSSI tend to get a rebate on fees for certification at the Ghana Standard Authority (GSA).
The board, she disclosed, does assist MSMEs with the registration of businesses at the Registrar General Department (RGD) as well as hold capacity building programmes for formalised MSMEs, which go to guarantee better access to business support service, markets and finance, among others.
The director was speaking in Accra on Friday at a seminar organised by NBSSI in collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation as part of initiatives under the business formalisation agenda of the agency.
Owners of MSMEs interacted with officials from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Registrar General Department (RGD), Food & Drugs Authority (FDA) and the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDA) on various procedures associated with business formalisation.
In a speech read on her behalf, the Director of NBSSI, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, said the provision of support to MSMEs by the government was non-negotiable since the sector represents 90 per cent of all businesses registered in the country and also account for 70 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).
“It is not a sector that we get to choose in terms of supporting them. But in supporting them we have to get the fundamentals right,” she said.
Speaking in an interview, a participant and an owner of a concept store in Accra, Stefania Manfreda, encouraged government to do more to protect local businesses with the aim to improve the survival rate of young MSMEs.
By Issah Mohammed