The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has initiated a nationwide capacity-building programme aimed at empowering female entrepreneurs in their skills development to improve on their financial literacy.

A five-week workshop in partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) for 30 women entrepreneurs selected from the Tema environs has ended in Tema. The participants were taught ICT principles for 4 weeks, and a week was allowed for sound financial management practices.

Ms. Habiba Sumani, Director of Women Entrepreneurship Development Department of NBSSI, in a closing address to the participants said the contribution of women businesses to the nation’s economic growth has been acknowledged in research.

Women entrepreneurs find it difficult to move beyond micro level as a result of several constraints, notably lack of access to long-term finance, low business management skills, and lack of a savings culture among others. Also, the advent of the computer and Internet has worsened their challenges.

“The ICT skills you have acquired will enable you find information and keep gathering knowledge, especially about market variations, record-keeping, data management and marketing,” she said.

NBSSI in collaboration with MoTI is to implement aspects of the Industrial Sector Support Programme (ISSP) that seeks to ensure all industrial policy measures and incentives benefit women entrepreneurs -- especially those in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). This programme recognises skills development as an important intervention to reduce poverty among women in micro and small scale enterprises.

Ms. Sumani said under Component four of the ISSP, NBSSI is leading the implementation of Project 17 which relates to gender in industry. It is in pursuit of the objective of this component that the NBSSI is organising this workshop in sound financial and management practices for these women entrepreneurs.

The participants, who were highly delighted with the knowledge acquired through the workshop, urged NBSSI to offer them laptops to enable them put into practice what they have learnt.

The Chief Director of MoTI, Nii-Ansah Adjaye who chaired the function, urged the participants to put the vast knowledge they have acquired into practice to enable them enhance their businesses. The participants were awarded certificates in recognition of their hard work during the workshop.

Several representatives of Micro Finance and Credit Union Institutions made presentations on the role of their institutions to enable the participants gain access to credit and promote their businesses.