The CEO of the Chief Executives Network Ghana Limited, Ernest De-Graft Egyir, has proposed a comprehensive strategic plan that, he believes, will instil resilience and productivity in the small and medium scale enterprises (SME) sector of the Ghanaian economy.

The main objectives of the Master Plan are to, among others, improve SME competitiveness and growth, foster high growth potential and upgrade human capital, skills and job opportunities by addressing skill mismatch. The Plan is also expected to improve design and value addition through research and innovation aimed at increasing market access as well as exports.

Addressing the maiden edition of the Ghana SME CEO Summit, in Accra, on the theme “Scaling-Up SMEs for Inclusive Growth” Egyir described the Master Plan as a “game changer as it will enable the SME sector to make a quantum leap and become a backbone to the economy.”

Small and medium businesses dominate the Ghanaian economy, accounting for some 80 percent of operational businesses, contributing over 60 percent to GDP and remain the largest employer in the country, according to experts.

The sector is however constrained in making the expected contribution to poverty reduction as it has failed to be inclusive due to the lack of scaling up.

But Egyir is positive tackling five broad areas including; infrastructure, regulation, capacity finance and business linkages coupled with a targeted investment in high-growth sectors will put Ghana on the “trajectory towards booming, yet inclusive economic development”.

The CEO, though appreciative of the setting up of a Ministry of Business Development, questioned the capacity of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) to discharge the responsibility of promoting and developing SMEs when the sector needed the fullest attention from the policy direction.

“Perhaps a new Ministry for SMEs will be our business transformation Messiah,” he suggested.

He said the SME sector is the “Economic fly-wheel of Ghana” and asked that the wheel begins to turn with government and CEO entrepreneurs as drivers.

The Ghana SME CEO Summit and Expo brought together CEOs and entrepreneurs to learn, share insight and unearth viable ways of working in the face of global trends.

Participants were expected to take away lessons on key management and business development insights; enhanced understanding of the drivers of contemporary business growth; unearth new strategic partnership and alliances through high level networking; best practices from peers as well as broker B2B deals for increased value creation for their respective companies.