A PROJECT to ensure Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have access to full-time Accounting and Business Development Services at their own convenience to minimise cost of services has been launched.
Dubbed: “Jobs for Graduates, Profit
for SMEs (JY-PS)”, it aims to improve the entrepreneurship ecosystems by
solving key SMEs challenges, which include limited access to investments,
low sales, and poor financial record-keeping and high loan default rate.
The flagship project by Finance
Factory (FIFACT) is in partnership with Tradeline Consult Limited and National
Service Secretariat (NSS).
A joint statement issued by the three
bodies said the project will equip the Business Development Officers (BDOs)
with sector-specific skills to help Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (MSMEs) unlock and access investment and financing opportunities
under JY-PS.
It said “the project is aimed at
raising over $200m investment for SMEs, create 1,600 direct jobs and 5,000
indirect jobs across multiple value chains.”
According to the International Labour
Organization (ILO), over the next 10 years, only one job will be created for
every four young people entering the labour market.
The National Service Secretariat (NSS)
deploys about 100,000 young people every year, yet not all of them secures
permanent employment after service.
The average 70% SMEs or startup
businesses will collapse within the first three years of operations due to
countless limited access to Business Development Services and perceived high
cost of service delivery.
Partnership
The statement said Tradeline will lead
to develop robust, scalable and profitable businesses to attract investments
for the SMEs, while NSS will support with the deployment of the
graduates.
It added that FIFACT was partnering
with a consortium of impact and corporate investors, auditing firms and
financial institutions as well as youth hubs, professional business and
accounting institutions, Business Associations and Cluster of SMEs.
Background
It further said the FIFACT model
resulted from Tradeline Consult’s successful Business Advisory Service
partnership with Financing Ghanaian Agriculture Project (USAID-FinGAP) in the
agricultural sector.
It said the model was fully piloted
with support from USDA/ACDI-VOCA under the Ghana Poultry Project across four
regions.
“Based on the successful pilot and
increasing demand from SMEs and countless job applications from graduates there
is a real need to full scale up the initiative through strategic
collaborations,” it added.
Impact
It said FIFACT will serve more SMEs
who desperately need Business Advisory Services in a cost effective way, with
specialised support for marginalised rural enterprises, female-led businesses
and people with living with “disability” across the country.
“It will train and deploy 1,600 BDO
using a Gender Equality and Social Inclusive strategy over the next five years.
This translates to one hundred (100) BDOs, from each of the 16 regions of Ghana
out of which 55% will be females.
Each BDO will work with up to 20 SMEs
in different sectors like agribusiness, health, education, renewable energy and
IT, translating to the target 32,000 SMEs across the country in the next five
years,” the statement said.
Source: Graphic Online