The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), the agency mandated to strengthen and grow the Micro, Small and medium Enterprises (MSMEs) Sector with special focus on women-owned/led businesses is joining the millions of women worldwide to mark the 2021 International Women’s Day.

Its focus is challenging women entrepreneurs to strive for survival in the midst of COVID-19.

The theme of this year’s campaign “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world” resonates with NBSSI’s focus for this year’s celebration.

“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman”. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult”-Melinda Gates. Each year, the International Women’s Day (IWD) is held on 8^th March to celebrate women’s achievements and to call for a coordinated and concerted effort to promote gender balance and equality”, it said.

NBSSI said the day also brings to the limelight the political, social, economic and cultural issues faced by women and to advocate for the progress of women in all spheres of life.

Executive Director, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, stated that technology is a key factor in speeding up the global gender equality agenda, stressing out that women-owned/led businesses across the globe can use technology to grow, expand and become competitive.

She noted that COVID-19 has taught us that resilience is the new progress and that digitalization is the new resilience for every business which desires to survive during this Pandemic.  

Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh indicated that tools such as mobile phones, tablets, and cloud-based services can be used to scale up and help women-owned/led businesses to extend their business operations across the globe to compete more effectively.

She noted that, this has become necessary as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has commenced and urged all MSME’s to take advantage of it.

As part of the celebrations this year, NBSSI is organizing a virtual Seminar and Master classes on topics such as Governance and Leadership, Risk Management and Digitalization among others which are crucial for the survival and growth of every business in this COVID-19 era.

Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh entreated all women, especially the entrepreneurs to register via on the NBSSI website to participate in the Programme scheduled for Tuesday, 9^th March, 2021.