ILO Supports Business Resilience in Ghana amidst Covid-19 Pandemic

ACCRA (ILO NEWS): As a measure to support SMEs cope with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the ILO SCORE has developed the Business Continuity Planning (BCP) training programme. The BCP training programme contains business development tools designed to enable SMEs resilience and recovery from the crisis. The BCP tools encompass relevant themes such as Increasing Sales, Improving Finance and Cash Flow, Effective Workforce Management, and Optimizing Processes.

According to a survey conducted by the Ghana Employers Association (2020) to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on businesses, about 62 per cent of respondents indicated that the pandemic had disrupted their operations. Majority of businesses (64.7%) had ruled out the possibility of engaging new employees, whilst 25 percent had suspended employment contracts. In addition, about 75 percent had postponed their investment decisions and 63.8 percent reported that demand for their products and services had fallen below normal levels due to the effect of the pandemic on their customers.

In light of this, the BCP programme was launched in Ghana with a Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop to build the capacities of existing SCORE trainers for delivery to SMEs in Ghana. The two weeks training programme was organised virtually from 9th – 20th November, 2020. A total of 13 trainers from stakeholders and implementing partners such as the Management Development and Productivity Institute (MDPI) and SCORE Training Solutions Ghana (STSG) participated in the workshop.

In his opening remarks, the ILO SCORE National Project Coordinator emphasized the timeliness of the programme considering the impacts of COVID-19 on the economy and particularly on businesses. He added that, the BCP training programme would reduce the losses being made by enterprises and support recovery. Beyond COVID-19, the BCP training programme is a cutting edge tool to stimulate a turn-around and growth of businesses. More importantly, the BCP programme adds to the Business Development Service portfolio of SCORE Ghana and would greatly complement existing services to the private sector. Following the ToT, a Training of Enterprises (ToE) is will be organised by the MDPI in Accra. Twelve enterprises drawn from the Federation of Professional Trade Associations in Ghana (FEPTAG) are expected to participate in the training programme.

The incidence of COVID-19 has re-calibrated the way businesses are operated. It is therefore imperative to support businesses with tools that complement their efforts to re-engineer their processes and procedures to build resilience and facilitate their transitioning into another frontier of growth.

The BCP training programme is being funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) through the SCORE Programme.