Small and Medium Scale enterprises (SMEs) could be used as a tool to transform the standard of living of the masses, if the district assemblies capture their activities in the governance process. Mr Kwesi Afriyie Badu, Chief Executive Officer of KAB Governance Consult, who made the observation on Monday, urged the Local Government Services to give prominence to SMEs in development programmes to facilitate the reduction of poverty. KAB Consult is an organization partnering the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in an advocacy project for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises. Mr Afriyie Badu was speaking at a meeting between the GJA, KAB Consult and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Local Government and Rural development in Accra. The meeting focused on some concerns of Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in their dealings with the assemblies. The programme is part of an advocacy campaign launched by the GJA in collaboration with the KAB Consult with the support of the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund to use the media to get the attention of policy makers in the development of SMEs. Mr Afriyie suggested the involvement of businesses in the fixing of fees at the district assembly level to encourage the payment of expected taxes. "Some assemblies usually fix fees or taxes to be paid by businesses in the district without engaging the business to know their problems," he said. He also expressed concern about deductions from the District Assemblies Common Fund and noted that only 27 per cent of the fund gets to the assemblies to be used for developmental projects. Mr Afriyie said the amount was too small to be used for significant development projects. Chairman of the committee, Mr Dominic Azumah, announced that government was planning to institute a National Decentralization Day, which would be used to recognize hard working civil servants in the District Assemblies and also educate the people about the decentralization process. Commenting on the deduction of monies from the common fund, he said it had been the common complain of the district assemblies. He added that the committee would ensure that district assemblies were independent in the management of the common fund. Source: GNA