The Western Regional Minister, Mr Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah, has stressed the need for the development and building of managerial skills of entrepreneurs to enhance the sustainability and growth of their businesses.
He said enhancing management skills was crucial for building a business and
that perseverance and openness to learning were key attributes for any
entrepreneur.
These were contained in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Frederick Agyemang,
Western Regional Coordinating Director at the opening session of the 17th
Electrical Wiring Certificate Awards Presentation Ceremony held in Takoradi.
He mentioned helping to raise awareness of the number of opportunities that
were available to grow businesses, such as the variety of finance providers in
the market as another form of support which could be offered to entrepreneurs.
The Minister said, entrepreneurs must understand that every business
entrepreneur made mistakes and suffered setbacks, often for reasons beyond
their control but that the key difference was how one responded to such
mistakes and the setbacks.
Mr Darko-Mensah, therefore, urged all existing entrepreneurs and future ones to
be strong and know that they could come back stronger in the end if they
persevered.
The Regional Minister indicated that youth entrepreneurship was high on every
political agenda to boost competitiveness and employment since the young
entrepreneurs had the potential to build new economic dynamics geared toward
growth and job creation.
He said the Government over the years had given attention to entrepreneurship
promotion that focused attention on creating a more enabling environment to
support youth entrepreneurs.
Mr Darko-Mensah pointed out that education and training had been a critical
tool to develop the entrepreneurial mindset and specific skills for business
start-ups and development.
He said there were SMEs support agencies which had been established as
‘one-stop’ shop providing more packaged support such as training and financial
support, advisory and mentoring services for young people.
“May I, therefore, use this occasion to urge the youth especially, to look
critically and assess the gaps that exist in the business landscape and set up
enterprises that are sustainable, to fill in the gaps,” he stated.
The Regional Minister hinted that MasterCard and other Foundations were
available for the youth to venture into entrepreneurship and that the Western
Region offered many business opportunities for consideration under these
initiatives.
Mr Isaac Yankson, Deputy Director of Trade and Industry for Western Region
mentioned some of the core functions of the Ministry as the facilitation of
private sector access to capital, and to ensure that private sector development
programmes were complementary and covered a broad range of needs.
He added that the Ministry also facilitated innovation and entrepreneurship, to
develop standards and Quality Systems to meet production requirements for local
and international markets and facilitate the removal of institutional and legal
bottlenecks.
MrYankson said the Ministry of Trade and Industry has been rigorously pursuing
its National Industrial Transformation drive which sought to industrialize each
District in the country and spatially create decent jobs for all.
Source: GNA