Association commends government for creating Fund.

Mr. Alfred Yaw Kissi, the Eastern Regional Secretary of Association of Small Scale Industries, has expressed concern about difficulties in accessing loans from banks in the country. He has therefore commended government for establishing the Small Scale Enterprise (SSE) Fund to help small scale companies to grow. Mr. Kissi however appealed to the management of the fund to make conditions for accessing the funds flexible to enable players in the SSE sector to access the Fund to help them expand their business to employ more people. Mr. Kissi, the Eastern Regional Secretary of Tailors and Dressmakers Association, made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Koforidua. He expressed concern about negative perceptions people have about young people who go through apprenticeship in dress making and tailoring, adding that such people were considered as those who could not make it in school. Mr. Kissi said this had affected the interest many young people used to have in dressmaking and tailoring because apart confronting the wrong perception that society had for them, after the training such young people found it difficult to get access to capital to start their own businesses and urged the government to come to the aid of such people. Mr. Kissi also appealed for support in the form of in- service training in business management and development for the players in the SSE. He said among the aims of ASSI was to bring together all people engaged in small scale business so that they could assist in collect taxes to support government and also to help develop their businesses. Mr. Kissi said the Association had offices in every district in the Eastern Region and is in the process of acquiring a parcel of land at Oyoko near Koforidua for development into an industrial estate. He urged Ghanaians to patronize Made-in- Ghana goods in order to encourage Ghanaian companies to produce more.