One of the major challenges start-up businesses as well as small and medium scale enterprises across the country face is access to relevant information to drive their businesses.
Another drawback is the ability to convince sponsors to get the needed investments for their businesses.
According to the Executive Director for the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) Kosi Antwiwaa Yankey-Ayeh, relevant information is key to prevent businesses from crashing.
She was speaking on the Morning Starr Monday on how the NBSSI can support startups to deal with these challenges.
She said her organization has disbursed over 45.7 million cedis to support MSMEs in that regard.
She stressed “I think the major challenges for startups or MSME’s in this nation is information. Finding information is scattered in a lot of different areas. Where do I register, access to markets, some even don’t have the confidence to go to the FDA when the need arises.”
“So how do you bring in an institution such as NBSSI to assist, support and provide them with the necessary support and that’s what we’ve been able to do. And so there’s a need for us to provide them with a lot of relevant information,” she said.
She continued “you also realize that even in terms of how to set up the business, to the story to develop their business, to access the right type of funding is also always a challenge for some of these businesses.
“There’s an art to it. For a lot of people. A lot of raising funds and getting people to want to invest in your business is how you tell your story and there’s an art to telling that story. And so those are some of the challenges and I think those are some of the things that through some of our government and private sector interventions we’ve been trying to assist some of these youth within the various districts tell that story. And show the numbers that people need to see in terms of showing the credibility of the start-up, showing the credibility of your work,” she indicated.
Mrs yankey-Ayeh noted that people might think they have information but all of it may be irrelevant. “So how do you decipher what is relevant and what is not,” she quizzed.
She ended by saying “I think one of the transformation the government is looking at was the transformation of NBSSI and its business advisory centres into business resource centres so they could be one-stop shop for business development. You ca get access to information and information is key. And if you don’t have information your business also perishes on that angle.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM
