GIZ Ghana’s Regional Programme Support of Reform Partnerships, on behalf of the German government, is supporting Business Formalization & Registration Clinics for 500 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in five regions.
The clinics are to sensitize SMEs entrepreneurs on the essence of business formalization and sponsor the registration of some unregistered SMEs.
The clinics follow a series of workshops on Business Integrity and Financial Discipline held last year, where data collected by the consulting firm, Lyme Haus Solutions, indicated that only 38% of participating businesses had registered with the Registrar General’s Department.
The first two clinics have taken place in Tamale and Sunyani, with 200 participants.
The first session of each clinic involves the training of participants on the importance of formalizing their businesses, while the second session is a free registration of unregistered SMEs.
The Team lead for Reform Partnership – Ghana, Richard Huelsmann said, “Many locally-owned SMEs operate without any formal business registration.
This denies them several opportunities such as access to financial services and limits their growth and expansion.
GIZ Ghana is using these clinics to help sensitize SMEs to make them appreciate the need to formalize and also provide financial support to make the registration process possible for them.”
The Programme’s Technical Advisor, Donald Manlenze Eshun, further underscores that the clinics will not only seek to sensitize entrepreneurs on the formalization of their businesses but also adopt a positive attitude towards their business operations.
“We have been impressed with the high level of participation of the entrepreneurs and the interest in registering their businesses. This suggests that the sensitization has been useful to them. We are excited about the fact that we have been able to fund the registration of unregistered businesses. We look forward to continuing in the other regions as planned,” he said.
The clinics, which will continue in the Western, Ashanti, and Greater Accra regions, come against the backdrop of a Reform and Investment Partnership entered into between the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany (BMZ) and the Ministry of Finance of Ghana.
The goal is to improve framework conditions for private investment and support for sustainable economic development.
About the Reform Partnership Programme
GIZ’s Regional Programme Support of Reform Partnership was commissioned by the German Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation to accompany and advise the roll-out of the existing and upcoming reform partnerships with six African countries.
The overall goal is to promote private investment and support sustainable economic development, contributing to the G20 “Compact with Africa CwA) initiative.