Caterers and suppliers receive much needed business training

Caterers and suppliers in Ghana historically used little or no record keeping when they made sales or other transactions, making it very difficult for them to know when they made profits or losses. Without this knowledge, it makes it much more difficult for a small caterer to effectively run their business, to understand how to maximize their profits, and to connect well with smallholder farmers. To help remedy this situation, near the end of 2013, the Procurement Governance for Home Grown School Feeding (PG-HGSF) Ghana team provided local caterers and suppliers with much needed trainings in business planning, entrepreneurship, and record keeping.

In collaboration with the National Board of Small Scale Industry and its local business advisors, the PG-HGSF Ghana team conducted business trainings for 492 caterers and 51 suppliers in 15 districts and hope to expand the trainings to even more districts. The purpose of these trainings is to help caterers and suppliers become more organized when purchasing goods, thus helping them manage their business more effectively through registering and understanding their expenditures and incomes. This gives them insight into the profitability of their businesses.

The trainings also give the opportunity and skills for caterers and suppliers to be able to develop their business networking skills, keep proper records of their business transactions, strengthen their understanding of the school feeding procurement process and improve their ability to access and work with local farmers.

Feedback received after the trainings was very positive and the training participants were excited about how their newly acquired skills could help impact their businesses. Faustina Amevor, Chairperson of the Ga East Caterers Association, said: “This is a great eye-opener, a real solution to the frequent discord in our membership. We are poised to deal more professionally with our suppliers, including the local farmers. Using the basic books, we can also now turn in accurate records to the District Assembly for speedy documentation of our reports for payment.”  
 
Florence Ataa Sedzro, a supplier, also had a great reaction to the trainings and lauded the aspect of continued education: “What I like even more is the plan incorporated by SNV [will] provide coaching support – we shall need it!”