The Business Advisory Centre (BAC) of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) in the Asante-Akim South District, has taken steps to facilitate credit support to boost the operation of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in the area.

Mr. Aikins Agyapong, Head of the Centre, said it had been working with financial institutions to provide the enterprises with access to loans.

He noted that growing businesses was the way to fight rural poverty, give jobs and slow the drift of the youth to the urban centres.

He was speaking at a consultative meeting held to discuss how to strengthen the MSEs to achieve optimal performance at Juaso.

It brought together representatives of the banks, officials from the Registrar General’s Department, Domestic Tax Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, Food and Agriculture Ministry and the Forest Services Division (FSD) of the Forestry Commission.

Mr. Agyapong said the BAC would continue to give every needed assistance and guidance to enable businesses to adopt best practices to enhance their viability.

He encouraged those trained under the Rural Enterprises Project (REP) and provided with start-up kits to make sure that they established their own businesses.

He said the expectation was that they would create jobs for themselves and others.

He warned against any temptation to sell-off the kits, saying, anybody who did that would be defeating the purpose of the REP – helping to lift the rural population out of poverty.

Mr. Hayford Kyere, the District Coordinating Director, urged the youth to show strong inclination towards entrepreneurship.

They should take bold decisions to set up their own businesses, pointing out that, the public sector could simply not be able to absorb the thousands of young people who come out of the tertiary institutions annually.