The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) formerly National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has commenced training for 500 selected Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) across the country under the COVID-19 SME Innovation and Digitalization Support Scheme.

The initiative, which is supported by ‘Invest for Jobs’ of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and implemented mainly by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is aimed at providing digital solutions and skills to SMEs in order to promote operational efficiencies and business continuity.

This was in line with strategies adopted by the GEA and its partners to use technology as a tool to help businesses survive the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic which required adapting to emerging market demands.

Speaking at the first training session organized for SMEs in the Greater Accra region, the Executive Director of GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh said adopting technology in the COVID-19 era is “the new normal that is here to stay with us”.

“the digital solutions are key, so we need to make it work. It is important for us to realize that times have changed so when you are taught, you implement them” she said.

She expressed her willingness to study how beneficial the training would be to the SMEs as there is an invested interest in understanding how digitalization would help SMEs create more jobs.

A representative of Penta Foods Limited, Lloyd Kusi, observed that through the training more knowledge has been acquired on how to improve the brand visibility of his business.

SMEs would undergo training in the area of social media management, web designing, enterprise resource planning tools, customer relationship management software, inventory management and financial management tools
Beneficiaries would also be provided access to e-commerce platforms, Learning Management System which will host content on various training tools developed in Ghana and elsewhere as well as ‘SME Portal’ – a web platform that provides access to valuable information and insights for SME.

It would be recalled that the GEA and the ‘Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation’ implemented GIZ signed a €1.5 million agreement to support Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana with digital solutions.

A third partner – the Digital Transformation Centre, also implemented by GIZ Ghana, was tasked to support the project with technical expertise.