ILO SCORE shares over two decades of impact in training SMEs in Ghana

The Project Director of ILO SCORE program, John A. Mensah, has said that despite the challenges associated with training people from small and medium enterprises, his outfit is pleased with the results the training has had on participants.

According to him, it is the passion and determination to help SMEs grow that have kept them going so far.

Recounting the challenges they experienced with organisations they wanted to arrange training sessions for, including procedural bottlenecks and bureaucracies, Mr. Mensah noted that their resolve has been the key factor in their success.

“As for challenges in life, I don’t want us to talk about them; I just want us to talk about the opportunity. There have been challenges. Sometimes the enterprise does not want to share information with you; some of them don’t even want you to enter their premises; some of them don’t even want to release their workers for training,” he said.

“Normally we go for visits; we do visit one, two, three, four, and five. Sometimes they give you time to go, and you have to sit down for a long time before the employees will be released to come to be trained,” he added.

He was, however, happy and pleased to share with journalists some of the impacts that the training has had on individual participants and their respective organisations.

Touting the impacts the training has made, Mr. Mensah said most institutions now give protective clothing to their employees to prevent them from obtaining cuts and burns during accident hours.

He added that women who had to reapply for work after going on pregnancy leave now do not do so but rather are absorbed back into the workplace once they successfully deliver.

In addition, he said most private companies now respect the labour laws of the country.

Mr. Mensah disclosed this on Monday, November 13, 2023, in Accra during an interaction with the media on the workings of his outfit and the impact made thus far.

Giving some background information about the project, Mr. Mensah said that the project was first sponsored by IMU NORAD and SECO in 2001 and ended in 2021.

He furthered that it was then taken over by GIZ, after which the project was handed over to the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), a government-subverted agency of the Ministry of Labour and Employment Relations.

He said in 2021, when the project was under the sponsorship of GIZ, they received €100,000 to train 60 enterprises and 30 microenterprises, and in 2022, the money was increased to €108,000, which was to train 74 enterprises, so the project was just limited to the Greater Accra Region.

But for now, he observed, due to the positive bearing the project has had on organisations and their employees, more funds have been injected into the project, and as a result of that, the project has also been moved from the Greater Accra to the Western and Central Regions, and in 2023, it has moved further to the Ashanti and Eastern Regions, respectively.

He said they have currently added five new regions to the existing ones. These include Bono, Ahafo, Bono East, Savanna, and Northern Regions, with a sponsorship package of €400,000 to train both the existing and new regions.

Speaking to The Sikaman Times on how impactful the project has been, the General Manager of Bami Enterprise, an organisation involved in the production and sale of solid “alata samina”, disclosed that the training has helped his institution cut down on electricity and water costs.

Gideon Kwesi Twum explained that the project or training has helped his institution recycle waste and facilitate the re-use of the rubber that contains “alata samina”.