The British High Commission, in conjunction with a working group of local and United Kingdom (UK) financial institutions in Ghana, has launched an initiative aimed at getting small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) listed on a unique type of stock exchange called the Ghana Alternative Market (GAX).
The move is expected to enhance access to capital by SMEs in Ghana.
The initiative, dubbed Capital SME, will stimulate commercial activities and increase trade opportunities as well as foreign investment and international partnerships.
The GAX, administered by the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE), was launched in 2013 to accommodate Ghana’s business community, and is targeted at businesses with potential for growth.
At the launch of the Capital SME in Accra on Wednesday, the British High Commissioner to Ghana, Mr Jon Benjamin, said the ultimate aim of the initiative was to stimulate private sector-led growth in Ghana in line with the UK government’s economic development policy in Ghana.
Stressing the need for the creation of more jobs, Mr Benjamin said the country was sitting on a “demographic time bomb” regarding unemployment among the youth, and that it was crucial that steps were taken to create more jobs.
That role, he said, could not be left to the government, since “governments do not create jobs” but the framework and enabling environment that would spur the private sector on into creating jobs.
He said it was the SMEs that possessed the potential to grow into big industries that would create jobs to transform the lives of “well educated young people in Ghana”.
Towards that end, he said, talks had been initiated with the government to ensure that all barriers to the growth of SMEs were removed and the enabling environment also created for SMEs to blossom.
Source: Graphic