Over 50 small business owners in the Upper West region received hands-on training on Friday on how to create and effectively use social media and other digital platforms to do business.
The business owners, who were mostly women and traded in local goods such as smocks, dawadawa and shea products, among others, were supported by creating business and marketing platforms on social media channels such as WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Speaking to the media about the rationale behind the program being dubbed the Skills Drive Project, Program Officer for Necessary Aid Alliance, the NGO responsible for the event, Mr. Abudu Osman, said his organization has been trying to build women’s capacity in business to fit into the digital space.
He pointed out that social media is considered to be a cheap and efficient means of promotion as it could reach a wider audience with very little cost and get spontaneous remarks and reactions on their product.
“Today, people are using the digital space to reach a wider market, including those outside their country of residence; that’s the kind of benefit we want to offer to the businesswomen in the community,” he said
He mentioned that the training is part of a project run by the NGO with the support of Plan Ghana and aims to develop the business skills of the people in the beneficiary districts of Nadowli-Kaleo, Wa West and Wa East.
For her part, Ms Fathiyat Numbo Mohammed, the NGO’s head of gender affairs, said local businesses in Ghana are a source of livelihood for a large number of people and have helped improve the country’s economy as their activity has generated revenue for the government.
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She also explained that local businesses such as tailoring, hairdressing, manufacturing, shea processing, event planning, photography, technological supplies, agriculture, restaurant services and others contributed to the creation of jobs for the youth as well as economic growth.
“There’s no reason to argue that while most of these companies are struggling to grow, there have been numerous opportunities for their success, especially with the proliferation of technology, companies have a higher chance of growing and having a global impact we felt it was the right time to make small and medium-sized businesses aware of the many opportunities in the global marketplace,” she said.
She mentioned that most of the women-led local businesses and startups in the area don’t have a big market for their products and services due to poor marketing strategies and over-reliance on traditional marketing systems.
“This practice by local businesses is taking a huge toll on their generation and the side effect is that it leads to stunted growth, an inability to hire more apprentices, poor sales, unattractive skills and several other factors, among others,” she added, telling Die Event should help bridge the technology and marketing gap.
The meeting was also used to launch a digital marketing mobile application called “Daah App” to help promote business in the region.
