TEMA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE APPEALS TO GOVT (PAGE 29)

Members of the Chamber of Commerce in Tema have appealed to the government to consider making the investment climate favourable for local business people to grow business in the country.
They claimed that interest rates had shot high and this, according to them, had put fears in them as far as financial support from the financial institutions were concerned .
These concerns were expressed at a forum organised by the Tema Chamber of Commerce in Tema to educate members on how to access funds for their businesses and practise good ethics .
The forum, which was attended by small scale business people and producers discussed the frustrations that some local investors had to go through to gain support financially for their businesses.
The Regional Executive Chairman of the Chamber, Mrs Victoria Ekua Hajar, urged them to network to enable them, share ideas and information and also learn from each other.
She was optimistic that local industries would thrive, if the people involved were able to adopt bold initiatives without looking back at previous frustrations and set-backs.
Mrs Hajar said many business people gave up their local production activities and preferred to travel out to wait for weeks for their goods specifications to be produced for them .
She noted that this had contributed to the dumping of under-quality goods into the country.
Mrs Hajar disclosed that the Chamber was outlining some measures to ensure that members acquired requisite knowledge and support through advocacy programmes to strengthen their production base.
She urged them to build up their confidence in doing business to help achieve their goals in the business sector and generally the economy.
Mrs Hajar advised them against corruption and called on them to be vehicles of change to encourage other people to set up their own businesses instead of going after goverment jobs, which do not exist.
She called for good managerial practices and book-keeping to qualify for funding from the banks .
Mrs Hajar said the Chamber would continue to invite resource persons from banks and investment institutions which had SME centres to impart knowledge to them in their field of operation .