Professor Justice Nyigmah Bawole, the Dean of the Business School, University of Ghana, has called for flexible business regulations for the nation’s young entrepreneurs to build and expand their businesses.
That, he explained, would enable the upcoming entrepreneurs to grow their businesses, enhance their livelihoods, and thereby spur rapid economic growth and progressive development.
Prof Bawole, also the Coordinator of the Entrepreneurship Pillar of the University’s Nutrition and Sustainable Agri-food Collaborative (NKABOM), made the call when speaking at a day’s regulatory advocacy engagement at Techiman in the Bono East Region.
NKABOM is an initiative in partnership with the McGill University and Mastercard Foundation aimed at expanding access to education and career opportunities in food systems.
The collaborative is made up of three pillars, namely, Education, Access and Success and Entrepreneurship, and the advocacy engagement was organised under the Entrepreneurship Pillar, which enhances capacity building by equipping students and beneficiaries with skills and resources needed to create sustainable livelihoods within the agri-food system sector.
It was attended by regulatory institutions, youth-led agri-food businesses, and local policy makers drawn from the nine regions of the Northern belt of the country.
Among other objectives, the engagement sought to foster dialogue on regulatory challenges, support mechanisms, and pathways for co-creating an enabling environment for agri-food Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Prof Bawole enumerated several challenges, including limited access to information and guidance, inconsistent enforcement, and corrupt risks, as well as the delay in obtaining permission confronting young entrepreneurs, which ought to be tackled to make the business environment more friendly for them.
He said difficulty in meeting international standards, unfavourable taxes and tariffs were also challenges, which needed to be addressed to improve the growth and development of entrepreneurship in the country.
Mrs Gloria Azerongma Salifu, the Principal Regulatory Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) later told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that the Authority was among others, focused on safety, saying it would not relent on its efforts to ensure food safety in the country.
She said the Authority was also putting in place measures to ensure that entrepreneurs engaged in the food and drugs value-chain meet regulatory standards, adding that the authority had intensified sensitization to make it easier for all entrepreneurs to access the services of the FDA.
Mrs Salifu urged entrepreneurs to access the services of the FDA in order not to compromise standards.
