<<Print>>

A Lecturer and Business Consultant, Professor John Aheto has called for government support of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs). According to him, the government must take the development of SMEs seriously rather than paying lip services to the industry. �SMEs are the backbone of any economy anywhere in the world, so it is therefore very important that we help the SME�s to grow. About 80 to 90% of business organizations in any nation country including America are SMEs,� he said. Mr. Aheto made this call when he addressed the Tema chapter of the Ghana Chamber of Commerce. He said though SMEs are flexible, adaptable and can serve the needs of the middle and large organizations, access to financing is difficult. Mr. Aheto explained that the SMEs do so much for the large organizations in order to add value to it but they are bedeviled with so much financial challenges saying, �they don�t have collateral for accessing funds; they don�t have a track record of five years or twenty years and they cannot afford the seasoned management team that the banks are looking for.� According to him, there is the need for SME�s to position themselves well to be able to receive the necessary financial assistance because �no government can do enough as the demands are great.� Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Ghana are said to be a characteristic feature of the production landscape and have been noted to provide about 85% of manufacturing employment of Ghana (Aryeetey, 2001). SMEs are also believed to contribute about 70% to Ghana�s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and account for about 92% of businesses in Ghana. SMEs therefore have a crucial role to play in stimulating growth, generating employment and contributing to poverty alleviation, given their economic weight in African countries.