Ghana Investment Promotion Centre has held a sensitisation forum for Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and other business owners in Ashanti Region to educate them on the role of the organisation and how they can take advantage of their services to grow.
The forum brought together entrepreneurs, representatives from the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA) as part of activities for the Ashanti Regional leg of the Regional Sensitisation Tour by GIPC.
Participants were educated on the functions of GIPC and the untapped economic potential and opportunities existing in the region.
Also, MMDAs and traditional authorities in the region were sensitised on the need to make land available for investment purposes.
More so, the forum gave first-hand information to SMEs within the region on issues that inhibit their growth and understand on-the-spot analysis of companies for registration. It further facilitated the development and packaging of the new investment projects for promotion, including visits to project sites, etc.
Director of Investment Services, Edward Ashong Lartey, in an interview with journalists, explained that as the mandate of GIPC is to coordinate and promote investment in the local economy, the Regional Sensitisation Tour is to showcase their activities to the doorsteps of businesses.
“We have a programme to visit every region in the country, talk to business stakeholders to tell them what exactly GIPC does as an institution, and how we can collaborate with them to grow their businesses.
“One of the things we are looking at is identifying projects which we will then profile and promote. We have the project catalogue where we have profiled projects across various sectors. We have both government-owned projects and private sector projects,” he said.
Mr. Ashong Lartey, however, expressed worry that despite the numerous potentials and opportunities in the Ashanti Region, it has only 20 registered projects with GIPC.
He therefore encouraged enterprises to ensure they make the most of what GIPC has to offer Ghanaian-owned businesses to thrive.
“In the Ashanti Region we do recognise that it has a lot of potential, but we need to promote this in a structured manner. We have extended an invitation to those with businesses; if you want to diversify and expand, talk to our business development team and see how best you can move to the next level. If you have just an idea, we will also be ready to talk to you and see how we can help you to crystalise this idea,” he said.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf by Beatrice Kwarteng Osei Asare, also advised the participants to leverage the partnership GIPC is seeking to offer them.
“This forum is to recognise the vast opportunities that this region has in terms of investments, and to sensitise people on the untapped economic potential and opportunities existing in the region. Obtaining first-hand information from SMEs is key to addressing issues that inhibit the growth, and it is believed that such sensitisation programmes are key to improving activities of our SMEs.
“Additionally, this forum seeks to increase aftercare support for businesses across the region, and to increase monitoring activities to support revenue generation of the centre – this is, therefore, laudable,” she said.
