Kumasi, March 2, GNA - An industrialist has identified poor organization and supervision of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as the main factor hampering their smooth development. The Reverend Samuel Fugah, National President of Small-Scale Carpenters Association, said the inability of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI) to organize SMEs properly and imbue them with practices such as good record keeping, marketing strategies and financial management, had led to the collapse of many enterprises. These are in sharp contrast with government's aim to make the private sector the engine of growth of the economy, Rev Fugah told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Kumasi at the weekend. He observed that since the previous government declared the Golden Age of Business, the onerous responsibility was on policy makers and stakeholders to institute favourable and proactive policies to sustain the SMEs.

Rev Fugah advised financial institutions to be wary of the high interest rates they charged on soft loans to SMEs, stressing that the inability of most enterprises to pay back had resulted in the closure of many businesses and the prosecution of defaulters. He said whereas government policies and programmes favoured big companies, the same could not be said of the SMEs who were always finding the micro and macro economic policies harsh to deal with. Rev Fugah suggested the creation of a special desk at the various ministries to deal solely with issues related to SMEs.