KNUST ASSISTS SMALL SCALE ENTREPRENEURS
The
School of Business of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
has started a five-year programme to train members of the Association of Small
Scale Industries, ASSI, in the Ashanti region for free.
The programme, which
took off this year with about 60 of the intended beneficiaries, is part of the
corporate social responsibility of the University.
The first 60 beneficiaries
who are being educated in English Language will complete their Course by the end
of the first quarter of next year with the ultimate aim of building the
capacity of these entrepreneurs to explore business opportunities to boost their
operations.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of ASSI, Kwabena Buor made this known
to the GBC in an interview at Konongo in the Asante Akyem Central Municipality.
Ashanti region has more than two thousand small scale industries under the
umbrella of the Association of Small Scale Industries.
These entrepreneurs are
engaged in various economic ventures such as snail rearing, mushroom, fish and
vegetable production as well as palm oil, gari and rice processing.
The Regional ASSI Chairman admitted that even
though there are a number of business opportunities for small scale
entrepreneurs to expand their operations, most of them have remained
unattractive because of their lack or low level of formal education and
technical know-how.
Others too who are able to access loans from the Rural
Enterprises Programme, REP, or the MMDAs have failed to repay thereby creating
mistrust in all small scale operators.
Mr. Buor advised small scale
entrepreneurs to register their enterprises, products and services with the
appropriate statutory agencies such as the Registrar General’s Department, Food
and Drugs Authority and the Ghana Standards Authority to gain recognition so as
to win contracts from the MMDAs.
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