The Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), a local chapter of Transparency International has organized capacity building and awareness workshop for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital.

The workshop formed part of GII's ongoing Multi-Stakeholder Business Integrity Forum project (MSBIF) which aimed at creating a platform for stakeholders to identify emerging issues that hampers the ease of doing business in Ghana.

Speaking with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Michael Okai, the Project Coordinator for GII, said SMEs accounted for the majority of businesses worldwide and were important contributors to job creation and global economic development.

He said in Ghana, SMEs constituted about 85-95 per cent of the private sector businesses, and contributed about 22-70 per cent of the country's GDP while accounting for about 85 per cent of the private sector employment.

"It is to this effect that the MSBIF project is committed to strengthening the integrity of SMEs and addressing challenges that confront its growth, by organizing capacity building and awareness programmes for key industry players", he added.

The Project Coordinator educated the participants on corruption and its damaging effects on national development.

Mr Okai said corruption was both the cause and barrier to overcoming poverty and attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as it undermined democracy and rule of law whiles causing economic and social obstacles to the development of a country.

He urged victims and witnesses of corruption to report such cases to the Advocacy and Legal Advice Centre (ALAC), an office set up by GII to report and pursue incidences of corruption for redress.