Some 90 Small and Medium scale Enterprises will soon benefit from a training project, called Sustaining, Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE).

The programme is being implemented by the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI),  a sub-vented agency under the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, with support from ‘Invest for Jobs’, an initiative of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (GIZ).

Together with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), implementation of the SCORE project is aimed at boosting  growth and productivity of SMEs in order to create jobs.   

Ahead of the training, stakeholders including representatives from the Ministries of Employment and Labour Relations, Trade and Industry as well as the Development Partners and SME associations, met to officially launch the project and secure one another’s cooperation for success.  

Team Leader of Invest for Jobs, John Duti, said “one of the key objectives of the ‘Invest for jobs’ programme is to enhance the efficiency and competitiveness of Ghanaian SMEs, as well as their job-creating capacities. We are therefore excited about this strong partnership with the MDPI and the ILO in jointly achieving these objectives”.

 He further added that owing to the huge contribution of SMEs to Ghana’s GDP, the need to make them locally and internally competitive cannot be overemphasized, stressing, the need to strengthen their resilience against external shocks, especially in times of crisis as currently with the Covid-19 pandemic.  

The Director General of  MDPI, Kweku Odame-Takyi, said “the SCORE programme speaks to the government’s industrialization agenda as it seeks to create a generation of productivity awareness operatives, develop cordial management and staff relationship as well as ensure work place safety and security since these are some of the expected outcomes of SCORE.

MDPI joined the SCORE project in 2013, and the programme has trained 250 enterprises, many of which have experienced increased productivity and profits.

Mr. Odame-Takyi added that ‘’as the government of Germany is currently hosting our President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo, I think our cooperation is well grounded and in line with the existing cooperation between the Republic of Ghana and Federal Republic of Germany’’.

He promised that the MDPI and its implementation partners were committed to delivering this programme to promote enterprise competitiveness, sustainable decent jobs of SMEs in Ghana.  

For his part, the National Coordinator for the ILO in Ghana, Samuel Asiedu indicated that the ILO and GIZ had had many successful development cooperation projects in Ghana and globally, therefore, he had high expectations of the collaboration with MDPI.

He believed MDPI would show leadership and would work seamlessly with the other implementing partners, SCORE Training Solutions Ghana, Sekondi Takoradi Chamber of Commerce and Industries and HoCo Consult, to implement the project successfully.

The goal is to build enterprises that would be able to compete globally, create jobs and improve the economy of Ghana.

He urged the implementing partners to us use this opportunity to further strengthen the bond that exist between the Government of Ghana, Germany, Switzerland and Norway.   

SCORE is an ILO global programme seeking to improve productivity and working conditions in SMEs with practical classroom sessions and in-factory consulting.

It demonstrates best international practices in the manufacturing and services sectors and helps SMEs to participate in global supply chains.