Professor Steve Sobotie, President of the Garden City University College says small and medium scale enterprises in Ghana are not getting it right in the efficient management of their businesses. According to Prof. Sobotie, players in the sector fail to engage professional hands to turn around their weak financial and management practices. He told Luv FM at a seminar on “Efficient Management of SMEs – the heart of wealth creation”, organized by the Centre for Community Empowerment (CEFORCE) of the Grace Baptist Church in Kumasis that mall businesses would need to avail themselves to new knowledge and skills if they are to be well-positioned to lead the country’s private sector development. “[There is the] assumption that it’s my business and once I’m able to go into it, whatever I’m doing is right. And they fail to look for skilled individuals; they turn themselves into accountants, purchasing officers [and] everything. And once we start a business, however small, and when it’s thriving, we stop reading, we stop training for further excellence,” Prof. Sobotie observed. He therefore entreated SMEs to access capacity-building seminars and ensure they practice new things learnt for enhanced productivity. Director of the Centre for Community Empowerment, Rev. Robert Asante says the programme is to support businesses with additional knowledge to spice up their operations. He noted that access to finance may not be the immediate challenge hindering the growth of SMES, stating that “there are a whole lot of banks looking for people to give money to, but once you come and they look at your weak management, weak finances and even lack of succession". He said once those shortfalls are addressed, financial institutions and other bodies would be willing to do business with them. Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/Luv Fm/Ghana