Joy Business/World Bank Economic Dialogue
Theme: "Stimulating Small Business to Achieve Faster Economic Growth"
Date: November 03, 2010; Time: 2.00pm
Venue: World Bank Ghana Office, Knowledge Space
The first in the series of the Joy Business/World Bank Economic Dialogue on the theme: "Stimulating Small Business to Achieve Faster Economic Growth" which took place on November 03, 2010 at the Knowledge Space of the World Bank office in Accra ended with key speakers highlighting various strategies that stakeholders in the SME sector of the economy can adopt to improve the performance of businesses.
The round table event, which was carried live on Joy 99.7 FM assembled leading thinkers and doers in the sector to share pragmatic and ‘radical’ opinions on how to redefine the SME sector.
Mr. Kofi Tsikata, Head of Communications at the World Bank Ghana office set the stage with a thumbs up to Joy FM for introducing such an innovative programme. He describes the event as one that seeks to inject some amount of new thinking and discourse on the airwaves. He believed this would enable people with great ideas to make meaningful contributions to growing the Ghanaian economy through healthy discourse.
The speakers who participated in the discussion were Dr. Joe Abbey , Kofi Bentil, Madam Kokor Amarteifio, Mrs. Maureen Odoi, Kwamena Esilfie Adjaye, Augustine Addo, Sidney Casely-Hayford, Magnus Nunoo and Eugene Johnson.
Emerging Issues
- There is need for a clear definition of the SME sector
- Radical tax incentives to the sector can make a big difference; such as a five year tax-free incentive to the sector
- Encourage appropriate bookkeeping by SMEs and info metrics on the sector
- Make venture capital work for the sector. Policy incentives should be used to “force” venture capital firms to carry out their core functions to the sector
- Women entrepreneurs in the sector need special and better support
- The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) should be restructured to be more innovative and proactive
- The government needs to provide SMEs with a tax-free 5-year period of operation to allow these indigenous small companies have a firm footing before these taxes are introduced.
- That, in order for the SME sector to receive the necessary attention, lands and uncompleted buildings need to be titled by the book. This he said, would allow entrepreneurs have the needed backbone to get funding for starting their businesses or for expansion.
- Mr. Kofi Bentil further asserted that there is no venture capital to help entrepreneurs who have great ideas and want to set up businesses. He therefore says these venture capitals should be ‘forced’ to ‘venture’ and do what they have been set up to do.
- Partial Credit Guarantee (PCG)— This allows banks who lend to SMEs to be cushioned with 50% of the loans given out when businesses default in paying back the loans.
- Line of credit facility- This is a long term credit facility given to banks to lend money to SMEs for a duration between 2 to 5 years intended to give the businesses enough space and time to grow without the hustle of paying back the loans quickly.
- Performance based Technical Assistance
- Accountants have been advised to take up lo cum accounting services with businesses that cannot afford to pay them as Chartered Accountants.
- The ICA is helping to facilitate a closer relationship between small businesses and accountants in small practice to give the businesses financial advice that will help in shaping the sector and making it credit worthy.
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DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
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