Business Development Support Services for SMEs using ICT - Ghana

In the project a Business Development Centre will be established in the office of PEPS-C in Wa, located in the Upper West region of Ghana to support and promote small and medium size private sector businesses. The centre will provide capacity building in business skills, gives access to the internet, will provide market information and establishes a platform to share knowledge. Around 400 small business men will use the centre. IICD has supported this project since November 2007.

The high unemployment rate and poverty of the youth in the Upper West Region of Ghana is a social problem. In this region, it is difficult to collaborate effectively in the field of business promotion for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), due to inadequate infrastructural facilities and a lack of ICT capacity. This minimizes the opportunities to share information and learn from other experiences. Job creation in the private sector is identified in the ICT for accelerated Development (ICT4AD) policy as a priority area of government’s overall socio-economic development programme. Against this background the business centre will address the issues of ICT capacity development and create an adequate infrastructure for collaboration.

Read more about IICD’s Ghana Country Programme.

Interview with Mr Gilbert Gbaal, Carpenter and member of PEPS-C

The Business Development Support Service Centre is constructed, a wireless LAN-network is installed and all other equipment is also operational. Twenty-five small business men are trained in ICT and business skills. The centre uses a thin client solution, a low cost hardware solution. VSAT is up and running. Fifty young professionals in 2010 were able to strengthen their business skills through ICT during multiple trainings thanks to the generous support from HVL, BAM Techniek en BAM Utiliteitsbouw. Their €10,000 donation, awarded to PEPS-C, was made to mark the occasion of the opening of a new data centre in Boxtel, the Netherlands for one of their clients.

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Interview with Br Gracious, Coordinator of PEPS-C

• To establish a Business Development Service Centre with ICT facilities to promote private sector businesses. Target groups are small and medium enterprises and members of the West African Chief of Police Committee Conference (WAPCC)

• To train all owners of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), led by youth, in the area of business management, financial management, and entrepreneurial skills development. As such, they can enhance their knowledge, and improve the quality and quantity of production in the coming three years, while combining and supporting these with ICT applications
• To research ways and means of market access and market expansion for the products and services of the enterprises.

Interview with Mr Godfrey Kamana, builder and member of PEPS-C

Enterprises Promotion Service Centre (PEPS-C). Members are young owners of small and medium sizes enterprises (SMEs). These enterprises are all engaged in various trade areas such as building, woodwork, metalwork, textile weaving and dressmaking. The total number of youth actively engaged in production enterprises for which this project of capacity building will be focused, now stands at 384 of which 249 (65%) are women and 135 (35%) are men. They will gain in terms of knowledge and capacity development and in the diversification of business opportunities.

Read more about IICD’s approach towards Livelihoods.

Interview with Mrs Jacinta Ziem of PEPS-C

PEPS-C is a Roman Catholic organisation, which was established by the Brothers FIC in collaboration with the Catholic Diocese of Wa. PEPS-C aims to mobilize Technical/Vocational School leavers into viable producer enterprises. Through sustainable self-employment they can make a living.

PEPS-C has developed a business plan to secure the sustainability of the project. By linking up with the Community Information Centre (CIC) in Wa, PEPS-C can reach out to a wider community and promote its activities.

The project will generate revenues through a training programme for the enterprise groups (for a variable fee), and through charges for using the ICT facilities, including internet and email.