More women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have taken advantage of a deliberate national products licensing regime designed to help small businesses to formalise their operations than their male counterparts comparatively.

Dubbed Progressive Licensing Scheme, the initiative is expected to help MSMEs in the local sector get one of their products licensed by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) at a subsidised cost or no cost at all.

As a result, 561 MSMEs have so far submitted their products for certification as part of a special arrangement. Of the total, 470 MSMEs were women-owned businesses while the rest were for men.

The FDA certification is to provide the required regulatory backing for the products in both the local and export markets.

Beneficiaries

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, in an interview with the Daily Graphic on May 12 in Accra, observed that certification for about 285 MSMEs which submitted their products had already been done.

Out of the number, she said 230 of the beneficiaries were women-owned firms while the rest fell under the men-owned category.

The beneficiaries are businesses into agro-processing, food and beverages, manufacturing (cosmetics and household chemicals) and pharmaceuticals.

The project is designed in partnership with the GEA and funded by the Mastercard Foundation under the Young Africa Works Project.

The project

Mrs Yankey-Ayeh noted that the project was aimed at helping more than 600 MSMEs get certification from regulatory organisations.

“In view of this, GEA, in collaboration with FDA, introduced the Progressive Licensing Scheme to help MSMEs in the local sector get one of their products licensed at a reduced cost or no cost at all.

“The scheme is in three stages which are pink, yellow and green, respectively for an MSME to secure a licence,” she said.

She added: “This project is being funded by the Mastercard Foundation under the Young Africa Works Project.”

Need to improve products

According to Mrs Yankey-Ayeh, the need to improve the activities or products of MSMEs had come on the front burner.

Partly deriving from the presence of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, she said the GEA and its partners wanted to position MSMEs and their products to be able to compete with products from other African countries.

Public assurance

The CEO stated that the FDA certification was needed to give the public an assurance that the products were of good quality and met approved standards.

“Once this standardisation or formalisation is completed, the positive externalities are numerous. The product assumes the required credibility to be displayed.

“The producer can now confidently display and sell to a wider market. And I am convinced that this is what the industry wants. We have exceeded a target of 500 for the first year,” she noted.

Mrs Yankey-Ayeh added that: “In the coming years, we are going to make it a cardinal duty of the GEA.

Currently, we have a Memorandum of Understanding on progressive licensing with the FDA. We will look at enhancing it and create a more conducive registration and formalisation regime for MSMEs in Ghana,” she added.