Heads of Business Advisory Centres (BACs) of National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) have undergone a three-week intensive training on business planning for new product development and market access.

This will enable them to deliver efficient services to operators in the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) sector.

The training which was organised by NBSSI in collaboration with Commonwealth Secretariat was attended by 23 heads of BACs from the northern zone of the country comprising the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo, Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

It formed part of NBSSI's strategy to effectively promote and develop the MSE sector by maintaining highly skilled, knowledgeable and results-oriented manpower capable of meeting the demands of the fast changing environment in which the MSEs operate.

This was in response to a survey by NBSSI, which indicated a gap in the delivery of services to growing MSEs.

In a speech read on his behalf at the closing session of the training in Tamale, Mr Lukman Abdul-Rahim, Executive Director of NBSSI urged the trainees to let the knowledge and skills acquired reflect "in the professionalism with which you tackle your responsibility and in the quality of support that you provide clients".

Mr Abdul-Rahim said NBSSI had initiated discussions with Ghana Commercial Bank to financially support MSEs to implement their business plans.

He said NBSSI had also designed a monitoring system to track progress in terms of knowledge and skills transfer, and the implementation of action plans of MSEs.

Mr Albert Boachie-Amofa, Northern Regional Manager of NBSSI said: "The high level of commitment, enthusiasm and willingness to learn demonstrated by the participants throughout the workshop is an assurance that the resources put into organising (the) training will yield the desired results."