K'DUA POLY ASSURES SMALL-SCALE OPERATORS (PAGE 20)

THE Rector of the Koforidua Polytechnic, Dr George Afranie, has given the assurance that the polytechnic will continue to offer consultancy services to owners of small-scale businesses in its catchment area to enable them to operate profitably and serve the public well.
He said the gesture was in line with the institution’s social obligation of improving the lot of the people.
Dr Afranie gave the assurance at a three-day workshop for 61 members of the Ghana Bar Operators Association (GHABOA) in the New Juaben Municipality at Koforidua.
The workshop, on the theme: “Improving Business and Financial Management Skills” organised and funded by the Business Development Centre of the polytechnic, was to upgrade the skills of the drinking bar operators not only to operate profitably, but also to ensure that the services offered at the bars conformed to standard to boost tourism.
Dr Afranie said most often operators of small-scale businesses such as drinking bars, did not properly manage their records, resulting in poor functioning.
He stated that since most of the operators had at least basic education, his outfit would offer them the necessary training to keep them on course.
According to the rector, the polytechnic would continue to offer consultancy services to the business sector and, therefore, appealed to the public to award consultancy contracts to it to enable it to generate funds for its activities.
That, he said, would improve the lot of the people in the municipality.
Dr Afranie dwelt extensively on polytechnic education, which he said, was to produce middle-level management personnel for the country.
He stated that his outfit would continue to assist people in its catchment area and advised the participants to make good use of the workshop to upgrade their skills.
The National President of GHABOA, Mr Olando Vincent Quarcoo, said although the association had 75,000 members, only 15,000 had registered with it.
He, therefore, called on all those who had not yet registered with it to do so in order to benefit from its skill training programmes.
Mr Quarcoo also appealed to the Minister of Tourism and Diasporan Relations to offer financial support to GHABOA to enable it to organise training programmes for its members to improve their skills to offer good services to the people.
He expressed his appreciation to the polytechnic and other organisations such as the Japanese International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and the Ghana Tourism Federation (GHATOF) for their immense contribution to members of GHABOA.