Assessing the impact of promotional Institutions on micro and small enterprises: a case study of Offinso District

Promotion of Micro and Small Enterprise (MSE) sector has emerged as one of the major strategies for poverty reduction in Africa and the sub-Saharan Africa in particular. In Ghana, it is one of the core strategies that have been put in place for uplifting the lives of both rural and urban poor. It is in this regard that several promotional institutions, both public and private sponsored, have been initiated to promote the activities of small-scale enterprises in the country. However, inspite of all the effort made to promote the small enterprise sector, it is apparent that a great deal of the promotional programmes have not yet benefited the most deserving enterprises as, in most cases, they are tailored to suit the needs of the medium and large scale enterprises. Even in cases where they have been designed to suit their needs, the most deserving entrepreneurs lack knowledge about the existence of such institutions and/or the pre-requisite conditions to qualify for assistance. Besides, where the support has been rendered, chances are that the modalities of its provision are ineffective. The need to carry out an impact assessment study of the promotional institutions on MSEs in the Offinso District, therefore, hinges on this premise. The broad objective of the study was to assess the extent of growth and development of micro and small enterprises that have benefited from the promotional support in the Offinso District. As an impact assessment study, the ex-and post-ante (‘before’ and ‘after’) approach was adopted as opposed to ‘with’ and ‘without’ approach. Four MSE promotional institutions namely: Rural Enterprise Project (REP), Sinapi Aba Trust (SAT), Agricultural Sector Improvement Project (ASIP) and Association of the Small Scale Industries (ASSI) that have been operating in the study district for at least three years were studied. The main promotional instruments offered are mainly micro-credit and training. The training is in business management, technology skills and transfer. The impact assessment was carried out at three different levels that is, the enterprise, entrepreneur and the MSE operational environment level. Verifiable indicators were used to measure the extent of impact at each of the three levels. Data regarding these aspects of the study was collected from primary and secondary sources. Stratified sampling was applied to come up with the study sample. Simple statistical tools of data analysis were employed like tables and percentages. SWOT analysis was also applied. The study found out that there has been differential impact of the promotional instruments on the beneficiary enterprises, that is, some positive changes have been realised in some enterprises while others have not experienced any change. For instance, training in technology skills and transfer, mainly offered to entrepreneurs in carpentry, dressmaking and bakery sectors, brought in substantial gains to those enterprises that adopted it. In other words, each of the four promotional institutions impacted differently on the MSEs. On the whole, the growth and development of the MSE sector, as a result of the promotional efforts, has been minimal due to a number of constraints related to the modalities of its delivery and reception. Several recommendations were made to address the pertinent issues that arose from the study findings. The recommendations made entail putting in place strategies that would enable all the stakeholders in MSE sector development in the Offinso District realise positive changes at the enterprise, entrepreneurial and operational environment levels. They also concern strategies that will go a long way to strengthen the existing support institutions in the district. All in all, to realise improvement in the growth and development of the MSE sector in the district, the concerned stakeholders are advised to ensure that there is maximum collaboration and proper coordination of the implementation of the proposals recommended.

Source: KNUST