The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has revealed plans to undertake a mass digitalisation programme for Medium, Small scale and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) in the coming years.

According to the Executive Director of the NBSSI, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh the digitalisation of MSMEs is intended to safeguard businesses in the event of future pandemics or a disastrous phenomenon that may challenge the traditional ways of doing business.

This was contained in a speech read on her behalf by Sampson Abankwa, at a workshop organised by the Social Enterprise Ghana under the theme, “MSMEs for Socio-Economic Development: Programmes and Interventions of Government of Ghana.”

She said this in view of the effects the Covid-19 pandemic and its safety restrictions had had on small scale businesses in the country.

Yankey-Ayeh said, “A lot of the businesses that were able to survive were those that had a little bit of technology in their operations.”

"As such, the NBSSI has decided to partner relevant organisations to train and engage MSMEs in programmes that will help digitalise the informal sector.

“And so moving forward, what NBSSI is seeking to do is to engage relevant partners in training, involving, helping our MSMEs to have programmes and things that will help them digitalise.

“So digitalisation is going to be one of the key programmes that NBSSI is going to implement in the coming years,” she stated.

The event was supported by Reach for Change, British Council, BUSAC and NBSSI.