AGI calls on entrepreneurs to form groups
The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) is increasing calls on entrepreneurs particularly owners of start-ups and small-scale enterprises to form business clusters towards meeting growing demands for products from the country.
At its Women’s Entrepreneurship Breakfast Meeting in Ho, the Association and its partners including; the Ministry of Trade, the National Board of Small Scale Industries and the Ghana Export Promotion Centre all noted that the inability of local producers to meet international demand for goods and services impacted negatively on the nation’s industrialisation drive.
Madam Lucy Tenkorang, Vice Chairperson of the Volta/Eastern Branch of the AGI said clustering provided easy access to funding, produced standard pricing, and promulgated ideas to improve the quality of products to attract investors and prospective buyers.
She said product innovation and packaging remained a major drawback, and could be addressed when producers came together to share best practices.
Madam Tenkorang said trust remained the hallmark of fruitful entrepreneurial groups, and asked that due diligence be conducted on members towards building strong reputation.
She further advised evolving businesses to make use of modern technology trends particularly the internet and its vibrant social media platforms to promote their products and services to an endless market landscape.
The Vice Chairperson also advised entrepreneurs to work towards improving upon product packaging, and said innovative product registration and branding would increase competitive advantage, and land them in broader markets.
Mr Theophilus Gadzanku, a former AGI Regional Chairman observed that low production capacity was a contributing factor to businesses inability to meet market demands and it was because entrepreneurs especially processors of raw materials failed to seek clustering as a way of increasing production capacity.
Mr Gadzanku said risks were high in one man businesses and should not be encouraged as they ended up being unsuccessful, especially for women entrepreneurs.
He said international markets were getting attracted to the country, and called on the banking sector and the AGI to encourage business bunching to take advantage of the prospects.
Mr Gadzanku was also of the view that entrepreneurs, together held the key to the development of Government’s One District One Factory Initiative, and therefore related businesses should pool resources to drive the initiative.
Mr Josephine Dzotsi, Volta Regional Director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry said the Ministry promoted made in Ghana products to the international markets and asked entrepreneurs to take advantage of the portal.
Mr Azumah Kumi, Business Advisor with the National Board for Small Scale Industries said its business advisory centres provided business diagnosis, and that the Board was also providing skill upgrades to enhance businesses.
Source: GNA