ILO Ghana holds ‘Lead Buyers Breakfast Meeting’ to seek domestic funding

The International Labour Organisation, Ghana (ILO Ghana) on Wednesday, September 29, 2021, held a Lead Buyers Breakfast Meeting to seek domestic corporate funding for its flagship Sustaining Competitive and Responsible Enterprises (SCORE) programme.

The ILO SCORE programme in the last 11 years has been in Ghana to offer training and support to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to grow and contribute to creation of more and better jobs.

Over the period, the programme has been supported by the governments of Norway and Switzerland.

Although there is now funding from the German government, the intention of Norway and Swiss government to end its support has meant the ILO Ghana must look elsewhere to sustain the programme.

It is in this vein that the ILO Ghana today held a Lead Buyers Breakfast Meeting at the Fiesta Royale Hotel to engage potential local investors.

Speaking at the meeting, ILO SCORE Ghana Project Coordinator, Samuel Onoma Asiedu noted that while the international organizations have been very supportive in training SMEs, it is crucial to have local ownership now at this point in time when the training programme has entered its fourth phase.

He said the purpose of engaging lead buyers is primarily to get them to sponsor training programmes for SMEs and other actors that fall within their supply chain.

Samuel Onoma Asiedu in a message to potential investors stressed that the successes of ILO SCORE Ghana has been enormous and supporting the programme will do more to enhance productivity in several companies.

“This SCORE project has a lot to offer and the benefits are there to see. We are happy to have GIZ on board however we are not solely focusing on the support of GIZ. We still want to look at how in the country we can have other multinationals, stakeholders also supporting,” the ILO SCORE Ghana Project Coordinator noted.

Engaging the media on the sidelines of the breakfast meeting, Deputy Director at the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI), Mrs. Bernice Adjei appealed to local investors to come on board to support SCORE.

She said, “We are pleading to our multinationals corporations to be on board to train our SMEs so that we can increase productivity, enhance employees output.”

According to her, having taken charge as the leading implementing partners of the SCORE programme, the MDPI has been doing a good job and currently being chased by many SMEs that want to benefit from the training.

Mrs. Bernice Adjei further assured that her outfit is ready and will continue to train as many SMEs as possible to help them enhance and improve their productivity.

Chairing the meeting, the Deputy Chief Officer at the National Pensions Regulatory Commission, Mr. David Tetteh was full of praise for the ILO SCORE Ghana.

He said SCORE is a premium productivity tool and multinationals in the country should channel resources to help sustain and continue the training of SMEs in the country.

Mr. Tetteh stressed that if firms embrace the SCORE training, growth will be guaranteed.
Currently, SCORE training is being delivered in just two regions [Greater Accra and Western Region].

In the next phase and with the right amount of support, ILO Ghana wants to extend its services nationwide

Already, about 350 enterprises have received SCORE training and still counting.

By close of this year, ILO Ghana envisage largely having local support in terms of sponsoring SCORE.