NORAD and SECO to fund second phase of SCORE to support SME _ Baaba Jamal

Baba Jamal

Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Baba Jamal, said the demand for SCORE (Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprise) training is increasing and development partners, such as the Norwegian Development Cooperation (NORAD) and the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) had agreed to fund the second phase of the programme for five more years.

He encouraged SMEs to take advantage of existing interventions to make conscious efforts to grow their businesses, while paying particular attention to decent-work deficits and systems that purposefully and gradually migrate SMEs from the informal to formal economy. This was made known during a call by the SMEs sector for gov’t support.

Dr Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, Vice President of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) said, “Ghanaian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are ready when given the necessary governmental support to help tackle unemployment as well as stabilize the economy”.  He said SMEs are more than qualified to turn around the economic turmoil of the nation if given the needed push from government.

Speaking at an International Labour Organisation (ILO) breakfast meeting of Chief Executive Officers in Accra, Dr. Adu-Gyamfi, who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DANADAMS pharmaceuticals, said such support would enable industries to contribute its quota to ensure the stabilization of the Cedi.

He said Ghanaian SMEs are not against foreign competition, but simply want support to be able to compete with foreign firms.

The CEOs, who attended the breakfast meeting, were those trained in the ILO’s Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprise (SCORE) programme – a global initiative, aimed at improving productivity and working conditions of SMEs through better workplace cooperation.

The meeting was under the theme: “Developing SMEs for Employment Creation: The Role of Government and the Private Sector”.

The SCORE’s curriculum contains five modules: workplace cooperation, quality management, cleaner production, human resources management and occupational safety and health.

The global SCORE programme currently runs in seven emerging economies covering different manufacturing industries. The Ghana project has begun implementation of the second phase with plans to make the programme sustainable beyond ILO funding.

The SCORE training has shown that if these companies are supported, then foreign exchange will be generated, many people will have more jobs and we will be able to accelerate economic growth in the country.

Through this programme, managers have been trained and we need the support of government to replicate the SCORE programme in other regions.