Business News of Sunday, 21 September 2014

Source: GNA

High productivity cost affecting local enterprises

Dr Tweneboah Senzu, Managing Director, Bastiat Society Ghana, says lack of access to finance, regulatory and institutional environment, high productive cost and low productivity are some of the macro- economic finance challenges facing Ghana.

He also listed low productivity, entrepreneur attributes, lack of access to appropriate technology and the existence of laws, regulations and rules that impede the development of small and medium scale enterprises (SMES) sector and weak institutional capacity as some of the setbacks.

Dr Senzu made this known during a maiden entrepreneur conference of the Society, a liberal economy think tank in Accra, on the theme: “Reliable Alternative Solution for Business and Principle of Wealth Making.”

He said globally SMEs are productive drivers of economic growth and development, and fuel national economic engine to accelerate achievement of macroeconomic objectives.

He said in Ghana, SMEs are the cornerstone to employment creation, accounting for 70 per cent of Gross Domestic Product, 92 per cent of enterprise within industry and more than 80 per cent of employment.

Dr Senzu said Bastiat Society Ghana would use its capacity, partners and affiliations both local and international to develop systems and programmes that would combat factors negatively affecting Ghanaian entrepreneurs.

He said the society is developing a Business Development and Research team, which would present alternative solutions to the current national power outage, which affects productivity.

Dr Senzu said the outcome would be accessible at low cost.

He used the conference to present a research paper proposing an ideal model of modern association for business growth in 21st Century.

Dr Senzu said the doors of the society are opened to partners that seek to compliment its efforts in addressing the economic challenges that has denied SMEs the ability to grow.