Invest in Africa (IIA) with financial support from the African Development Bank’s Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) has launched a US$ 4 million business training initiative called The Business Linkage Programme (BLP).

Over the next three years, the BLP will provide 120 ambitious Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) with world class training and mentoring from global experts across sectors. The BLP has been uniquely designed to support Ghanaian SMEs embed efficient management structures and technical systems to improve their competitiveness, attract finance and win new business.

To maximize the opportunity to win new business, all applicants must be members of IIA’s online business directory, the African Partner Pool (APP). This ensures they are alerted to new tenders, training opportunities and exclusive industry events featured on the APP

To be considered for a place on IIA’s BLP, applicants must:

Firstly, register as a “Local Supplier” on www.africanpartnerpool.com

Then, send an email expressing interest to BLP@investinafrica.com by the 11^th of September, 2015.

Invest in Africa Ghana Country Manager, Sam Brandful said, “The Business Linkage Programme sets the stage for us to build the capacity of the selected SMEs to increase their competitiveness, increase revenue and provide them with a better chance of accessing finance.”

Successful SME graduates from the BLP will share their knowledge and business experience with other SMEs on the APP via the Business Growth Hub, a library of best practice guides written for SMEs and hosted on the APP website.

IIA’s mission is to facilitate long-term and sustainable local partnerships by ensuring that SMEs registered on the APP are able to competitively bid for global tenders and are equally capable of delivering goods and services to quality, time and scale.

The BLP also supports domestic and international companies to source more locally in a cost effective and efficient way while meeting local content legislation and supporting local enterprises to add greater value to Ghana’s economy.