Mr Yoshimura, who was speaking at a ‘Kaizen’ project seminar in Accra, said the Japanese government had, over the years, supported many African countries with their development activities by way of contributing to infrastructural expansion, growth in human resource and implementation of ‘Kaizen’ projects.

‘Kaizen’ is Japanese for ‘continuous improvement’. It is used to describe a company’s culture where the work of each individual in an institution, right from the chief executive officer to the front desk staff, is regularly evaluated to ensure improvement in performance.

The Ambassador noted that the ‘Kaizen’ programme was being implemented effectively under the auspices of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in the country.

Concept

In order to implement the concept successfully, it is compulsory that all employees receive basic training and guidelines on what to do to enhance quality and productivity at the workplace.

So far, the concept has been adopted by Toyota and other Japanese companies worldwide.

The ‘Kaizen’ concept was launched in Accra in 2015 and is expected to end in 2018.

Ghana’s future

Mr Yoshimura said ever since the ‘Kaizen’ idea was introduced, many SME businesses had continued to reap benefits from the projects they had implemented, adding that many SMEs in Ghana had, through the concept, recorded increased productivity of at least 30 per cent.

According to him, Ghana would be one of the most successful countries implementing ‘Kaizen’ by the end of the programme and lead other African countries, especially those in West Africa.

“So far, the government of Ghana, through relevant ministries and agencies, particularly the National Board for Small-Scale Industries (NBSSI), has been very instrumental in implementing the ‘Kaizen’ project,” he said.

JICA on the move

The Chief Representative of JICA Ghana, Mr Koji Makino, said the agency was negotiating with the government to introduce ‘Kaizen’ in the public service sector.

He  commended the NBSSI for successfully implementing the programme and urged the board to continue to train more businesses to understand the ‘Kaizen’ programme.

For his part, the Executive Director of the NBSSI, Mr Lukman Abdul-Rahim, gave an assurance that the board was fully committed to implementing ‘Kaizen’ over its three-year duration.

He expressed gratitude to the Japanese government for the support it was giving to Ghanaian businesses.