The United Nation’s Office for Project Services (UNOPS) is training about 170 small and medium entrepreneurs to equip them with necessary skills for procurement tendering and better access to UN entities that would be tendering for products.

The skills acquired would allow the entrepreneurs to showcase their goods on the UN platform for procurement of their goods worldwide.

Mrs Ifeoma Esther Charles-Monwuba, Director and Representative, UNOPS Ghana, announced the training programme at the opening of the UNOPS Possibility (UP) forum in Accra.

The two-day conference, on the theme: “Thinking beyond here and now, to focus on what could be done,” to inspire entrepreneurs to realize their potential in the area of public procurement.

The forum being hosted jointly by the Ministry of Public Procurement (MOPP) with the UNOPS, is focusing on women and youth-owned businesses.

Mrs Charles-Monwuba also advised for large or bulk procurement to be broken into small units to enable these SME entrepreneurs to bid more easily for procurement jobs.

Ms Sarah Adowa Sarfo, Minister of State in-Charge of Public Procurement, underscored the need for efficiency in public procurement to make a lot of savings for the nation, adding that reaching the national goal of “Ghana beyond Aid’ programme, required improved processes and procedures with public procurement.

She said the meeting was to empower the SMEs to take advantage of the great opportunity in public procurement.

The Procurement Minister noted that “Small and medium businesses stimulate growth, generate employment and contribute to poverty reduction in Ghana”.

Mrs Frema Osei-Opare, Chief of Staff, emphasized the strides made in the reform of procurement and the subject of process management in Ghana.

She urged business people to take advantage of initiatives being put in place by the Government of Ghana in empowering the youth, women, and persons with disabilities as well as digitizing the business processes to create more opportunities to grow businesses in the country.