The first edition of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Ghana Awards 2013 is set to come off on July 30, 2014 in Accra to showcase and award the country's best SMEs in the Trade, Industrial and Service sectors.

The business competition awards has been instituted to acknowledge, celebrate and encourage excellence amongst SMEs in Ghana - giving them the opportunity to gain valuable exposure and a well-deserved  recognition for national and global expansion.

In a speech read on his behalf at the launch of the maiden SME Ghana Awards, Trade Minister Haruna Iddrisu, re-iterated government's commitment to make Small and Medium Scale Enterprises competitive by reducing their cost of doing business.  He noted that government has started rolling out programmes to tap the full potential of the sector to build a private sector-led economy.

“The Ministry of Trade and Industry as a lay policy advisor on Trade, Industry and Development recognises the great responsibility and has put in place policies to leverage the business environment to make it friendly for businesses to thrive. The thrust of the policy agenda of the ministry is the integration, promotion, development of vibrant, productive and competitive SME sector.                

In pursuance of this, a number of interventions is being pursued in consultation with the private sector” he said.

The SME Ghana Awards is the brainchild of Imagine-8 Company Limited in partnership with the Ministry of Trade  and Industry and other partners to reward the most imaginative and successful initiatives from small and medium sized enterprises, private -public partnerships and other special recognitions for the successful spirit of entrepreneurship.