LOCAL ARTISANS COULD BE ‘EXTINCT’ BY 2013-ACF BOSS

Akan center furniture (AFC) the model small and medium enterprises (SME) in the country’s wood work sector has successfully hosted the maiden edition of the meeting of SMEs at its main office at kaneshie first light. The meeting had as a highlight the forecast of the acute unavailable of local artisans in the country by 2013.

“Surveys that we have conducted on he future of artisanship in he country indicated that‚ in five years time‚ local artisan will not be readily available in the country “‚ Mr. E. K. Korsah‚ Managing Director of Akan Centre Furniture announced.

What this mean is that by 2013‚ the comparatively affordable services of indigenous crafts men‚ like furniture engineer‚ welders‚ masons‚ sculpture and potters among other are likely to be unavailable on demand.

The meeting was hosted by Akan Centre Furniture in line responsibly entrusted to it by Ministry of Trade and Industry and President Special Initiative (MOTI / PSI) as a model SME in the country’s wood work sector‚ to mobilise struggling SME’s and create a common platform for them to avail themselves for information and education on good practice in services delivery‚ pursuance of which is said to behind the success stories of model of SME’s like Akan Centre Furniture Ltd.

It was just the first of series of meeting hat are scheduled to be held by the company to participate. SME company representatives from sectors including Wood Work‚ Metal Work‚ Trading and Auto repair attendant.

The meeting was chaired by Mr. Paul Amoako Konadiu‚ the Managing Director of International Commercial Bank and had its resource person as Dr. Mohammed Muslim the COO of Pentax Management Consultancy Services.

Mr. Korsah’s extrapolation of the accurate shortage of artisans by 2013‚ he says‚ was informed by the survey he conducted revealed wide spread apathy for the acquisition for the craftsmanship skills among the country’s youth due to unhealthy desire to get rich overnight.

“Most youthful people prefer to go to the street to sell dog chains and other cheap commodities because they want to earn money quickly”.

He however admitted that to a large extend‚ most of these youthful people are constrained by abject poverty to hawk on the streets instead of spending time to equip themselves with skills in craftsmanship.

Mr. E. K. Korsah hinted plans by stake holders led by himself‚ in his capacity as the Manager of the model SME in wood work‚ to work out a preemptive programme to forestall the occurrence of the shortage of craftsmen in the near future.
“We have plans to link up with the Ministry of Trade to come out with a programme that will build the capabilities of SMEs to mobilize and train the youth in craftsmanship” ‚ Mr. Korsah announces.

The scheduled series of meetings of SMEs‚ he said‚ was par of the plan to equip businesses in the sector with the capacity to salvage the future of craftsmanship.

Earlier‚ he had made a presentation on the strategy behind Akan Centre Furniture’s success story.

In summary‚ he attributed the continuous viability of the company to the pursuance of good practice emphasizing on good financial management‚ record keeping‚ customer care and human resource management.

Prior to Mr. Korsah’s presentation‚ Dr. Mohammed Muslim had presented an expos’ on the tenets of good practices including‚ in addition to what Mr. Korsah later emphasized‚ Marketing‚ Linkages and Production Technology.

Reference: Ghanaian Voice
By Stanley Assor Jnr.
March 10th 2008‚ page 6.




MODEL SME-AKAN CENTRE FURNITURE  ADVISE

The Managing director of Akan Centre Furniture located at Kaneshie First Light‚ Mr. Emmanuel Korsah has emphasized the need for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country steadfastly pursue Good Practices in service delivered as it is the surest way to achieve sustainable growth of such enterprises.

He has insightfully pointed out that the wide spread stunted growth of businesses in he SMEs sector is not the making of the lack of output expertise as is widely delivered to be the case but the deficiency of good business acumen loc used by globally accepted world practices.

Mr. Korsah intimated this opinion at the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) in collaboration with Japan International Co-Operation Agency (JICA) sponsored Workshop on Good practices of small and medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Kumasi.

The Workshop was organized by the two bodies to create a platform to afford struggling SMEs in the country’s manufacturing sector he opportunity to tap knowledge and experience from successful ones which are doing well due to their pursuance of good practices in their operations.

Mr. Emmanuel korsah was invited to speak at the Workshop at his capacity as the Managing Director of the model woodwork company in the SMEs sector.

A survey conducted by Pantex Management Consultancy Services Limited‚ into the extent of the pursuance of Good Practices in the operation of successful SMEs prior to the workshop recommended Akan Centre Furniture as the model company in he wood work sector whose operations could be emulated by other SMEs in the sector.

The survey collected data on the extent of Good Practice Pursuance in respect of eight areas including‚ Financial Management‚ Operations‚ Marketing‚ Customer Care and Human Resource. The rest are Production Technology‚ Leakages and Networking and Corporate Governance.

Among other things‚ Mr. Korsah advised SMEs to pursue a vigorous social philosophy if they wish to grow. “My company donates blood to the Korle-Bu Blood Bank periodically”‚ he exemplified”.

In addition‚ Akan Centre Furniture engages street children and shoe shine boys for training free of charge.

In this regard‚ over 1‚500 youth have been trained by the company since its establishment.

As testament to the many positive contributions that it has made to society the company has many physical laurels to show for. It won the best product award of GHIFEX 87‚ Best Manned stand at GHIFEX 93 and Kwame Nkrumah excellence in enterprise award in 2007.

In recognition of its commitment to the pursuance of Good Practices in operation the company had been invited by MOTI to take advantage of its Subcontracting and partnership exchange (SPX) programme.

The programme out sources opportunities for SMEs through the Ministry as part of Government’s effort to ensure the viability of performing SMEs.
Akan Centre Furniture is also put in charge of collecting information on other SMEs in its operational area and finishing it to MOTI.

Mr. Korsah urged SMEs to always Endeavour to churn out quality product instead of flooding market with shoddy ones and trying to push their sale with advertisements.

He quoted the age old Akan adage “Ade Pa Na Eton Neho” to wit “good things market themselves” to buttress this point.

Reference: The Ghanaian Voice News Journal
By Stanley Assor Jnr.
29th February‚ 2008‚ page 5.