The Social Entrepreneurship Hub (SE-HuB) and the SHARE Foundation, Germany, in collaboration with the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI), has organized a maiden stakeholder engagement for organisations that support formal and informal businesses in Sekondi – Takoradi.
The meeting served as a platform to create strategies and an environment that support synergies for all parties involved in the support of enterprise promotion in the region. The engagement was an opportunity to discuss entrepreneurial activities in the local ecosystem and how best to support its development.
Regional Treasurer of the GNCCI, Mrs Alice Okyerewa Darko, spoke of the nature of MSMEs and their operations in the Region. After exposing the participants to what qualifies a business to be classified as an MSME, she enumerated the challenges these businesses face within the region and their organization supporting their activities, which include access to business advisory and coaching services, opportunities for business financing, access to markets, etc.
Director, Administration and Projects, SE-HUB, James Arthur-Amoah, introduced participants to the effectuation logic. He illustrated how SE-HuB has used the effectuation principles to support and grow enterprises and reiterated the need for collaborative and partnership approaches to supporting enterprises in the Region.
He further stated that enterprise support organizations should not be competitors but partners since their overall objective is to ensure enterprises’ successful growth in the Region.
An open forum saw participants suggesting and recommending various strategies in support of the Effectuation principle to ensure that enterprises in the Western Region make good use of what they have available to them to reach the heights that they want to reach.
Although issues of finance were noted by the participants as a challenge to entrepreneurs, it was generally agreed that, it is not the only reason that leads to the failure of enterprises but other factors that are overlooked during the entrepreneurship process
The three organisations have many parallels in their motivation and previous working methods. They support entrepreneurs/SMEs in the formal and informal sector in Ghana. The SE-HuB is a non-profit organization that provides businesses in Ghana’s formal and informal sector with the necessary skills to become locally and internationally competitive. Its focus is on green and sustainable entrepreneurship.
S.H.A.R.E. Foundation supports local entrepreneurs in Ghana by assisting them with the needed technical and financial support to start and expand their businesses.
The Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Sekondi-Takoradi, an Association of private businesses, seeks to promote and protect its members’ private business interest and the general business community. They advocate, create opportunities for Business to business, provide business advisory services, amongst others.
