Mrs. Justine Mensah, a Trainer with the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, on Friday announced that BUSAC would from next year introduce leadership training and fund raising programmes in addition to its advocacy programmes to ensure effective and efficient training for small scale businesses in the country.

She said BUSAC Fund was currently combining advocacy work with financial management training because a study conducted revealed that most managers and owners of small-scale enterprises knew very little about record keeping and effective financial management.

Mrs. Mensah made the announcement at the end of a four-day Financial Management Training Workshop held in Cape Coast for 24 managers of various associations drawn from the Central Region.

The participant were members of the Kadadwen Market Youth Association, Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam Palm Oil Producers Association, Assin-Foso-Adubease Ghana National Association of Garages, Apam Canoe Cooperative Fishermen Company, Dwoma God first Fishermen Association, and the Abura Dunkwa Lime Growers and Marketers Association.

They were taken through topics like Financial Management, Cost Categories, Bookkeeping, Cash Planning, Importance of Recording and Record Keeping, Purchasing, Forecasting and the Preparation of the Balance Sheet.

She said most business managers did not have the requisite leadership skills and the ability to generate their own funds to help in the growth and development of their businesses and that it was for this reason that BUSAC Fund would soon introduce leadership training and fund-raising programmes.

Mrs. Mensah underscored the importance of records record keeping, budgeting, forecasting and planning stressing that most businesses were not functioning effectively because they did not keep proper documents and data on the operations of their businesses.

She said no bank or financial institution would like to transact business with a disorganized association or organization .

Mrs. Mensah said many of them could not effectively manage their cash flow and urged them to always endeavour to plan and be proactive, creative and innovative in what they did, adding that this would be the only way for them to survive in a competitive environment.

She said the ineffective management of cash flow as well as inadequate technical Know-How was crippling most businesses in the country and urged managers of businesses to regularly seek information that would help their business to grow.

She said apart from going to the bank and other financial institutions for loans they would also source loans and grants from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Export Development Fund.

Mrs. Mensah, in this regard, urged them to take advantage of the workshops being organised by BUSAC to enhance their record keeping and financial management skills.

Some of the participants the GNA spoke to expressed their gratitude to BUSAC Fund for the training, stressing that it would go a long way to boast their record keeping and business management capacity.

They, however, suggested that there should be follow-up workshops and monitoring of the activities of participant to ensure that they put what they have learnt into practice.

They also asked that the BUSAC Fund should assist them get loans from the banks since getting loans from the bank was one of their major problems. The participants were each presented with a certificate.