Rosemond Aboagyewa Boohene

"I call on government to put in place sustainable policies targeted at small businesses in the country to help them grow."

"There is growing confidence among researchers in the ability of small businesses to play a vital role in economic development. This role is manifested through their contribution to innovation, job creation, and income generation. In transitional economies such as Ghana, small businesses comprise about 90 per cent of all registered enterprises and are recognised as a crucial and integral component of economic development policies aimed at sustained poverty reduction."

"The ability of the small business sector to contribute to economic development is influenced by the performance of individual firms, which is in turn influenced by their strategic capabilities. Strategic capabilities are determined by the owner-manager's personality and demographic and environmental characteristics. Owner-managers' personality characteristics originate from the prevailing cultural and socialisation processes to which they are exposed."

"In Ghana, women form the majority of operators in the small business sector, but their educational levels and managerial experiences are lower than those of their male counterparts. There are also gender differences in the socialisation of girls and boys in Ghana. It is expected that these differences in personality and demographics between men and women affect their strategic capabilities, and ultimately the performance of their businesses. This study accordingly examines the direct and indirect effects of gender on owner-managers' characteristics, strategic capabilities, and performance of small retail firms in Ghana."

"A multi-method approach employing both quantitative and qualitative research methodology was utilised. Face-to-face interviews using structured questionnaires were employed to collect information from 674 owner-managers of small retail shops in the Accra Metropolis in Ghana. In all, 600 useable responses were obtained. In addition, focus group discussions were used to support the findings obtained from face-to-face interviews on issues relevant to business success."

"Structural equation modelling using partial least squares was employed to examine the relationships between gender, owner-managers characteristics, strategic capabilities, and firm performance. Results revealed that the gender of the owner-manager has a direct influence on performance, firm resources, business owner's skills, personal values, business experience, and education. In addition, a partial influence was observed for business strategies, but not for owner-manager's age."

"Graduate unemployment was a national security issue, and the country could fall on entrepreneurship to rescue the situation."

"I observed that entrepreneurs were faced with a plethora of challenges, including limited access to finance, inadequate infrastructure, skill gap, inadequate human resources like mentors and coaches and a limited access to market."

"They produce the products and sometimes they don’t even know where to sell it. We have the African Continental Free Trade Area. Can we support them to leverage it?"

"I call for the provision of infrastructure such as roads and electricity as well as providing the youth with managerial and entrepreneurial skills to thrive."

"I call for a genuine financial support programme to give support to feasible and credible businesses or ideas and encouraged people to save and partake in group funding before relying on other sources."

"Even though there are interventions like MASLOC and NEIP, I believe that the entrepreneurs and the small enterprises will also have to start something and save on their own to supplement what other organisations give them."

"There are a lot of regulations they have to comply with. They are trying to make ends meet and make their businesses grow and so it sometimes becomes even difficult for them to remember all these regulatory regimes they have to comply with."

"That a more friendly regulatory regime will expedite the formalisation of the economy and make it easier to effectively formulate and implement interventions for the industry."

"I counsel Ghanaian youths to explore the rich opportunities in entrepreneurship to fight unemployment, that is the only solution to the graduate unemployment situation in the country."

"Remember I always say that if we have a lot of graduate unemployment, it is a national security issue. And therefore, entrepreneurship can come to the rescue."

"High school students would have to acquire skills in military training, agricultural training, digital literacy, entrepreneurship training, among others to succeed in the model for entrepreneurship training."

"I have worked on a lot of projects aimed at fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in students of the UCC, including university wide entrepreneurship course, Business incubator, among others."

"I admitted that the entrepreneurship sector was fraught with problems and recommend the creation of specialised agencies, financial support programmes, capacity-building initiatives, and policy reforms, to revamp the sector."

"Women form the majority of operators in the small business sector, but their educational levels and managerial experiences are lower than those of their male counterparts."