BUSAC Workshop

1 September 2009

I’ve just returned from a two day workshop in the nearby city of Wa. The purpose of the workshop was to educate public officers on the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, and generally the role that the public sector can play in the development of Ghana’s private sector.

Meetings like this one are certainly a perk of my job with the District Assembly. I get to attend meetings with many top government officials, Traditional Chiefs, and NGO leaders. I get to meet many interesting people, like one gentleman who spent the last 20 years in the UK and has come back to be the District Chief Executive in his home district in Ghana. This is a district with no electricity or paved roads – how the Assembly even functions is beyond me!

This was not my first workshop in Ghana, but it was my first workshop that was out of town. The workshop was at the Upland Hotel – a very nice hotel by standards that I’ve witnessed in Northern Ghana. The room I stayed in was charged out at GHc45 per night, which is 5 times the price of the place I stayed in Wa the weekend before when I was footing the bill. Although these workshops serve as important training (which we would pay for in Canada), participants are generally funded to come – travel costs, all food, accommodation, and even sitting allowances (a personal stipend). This workshop did not provide sitting allowances, but everything else was fully covered. At the close of the workshop, participants were told to go and claim their travel costs. I tried to deny any compensation since it cost me GHc2.50 to get to Wa, and I was catching a ride back with some other participants. However my attempts to turn it down caused quite a stir with my coworkers, so instead I claimed it and gave the envelope containing GHc40 to them to share.

The topic of the workshop was very interesting. Since I have arrived, I have begun to take the stance that private sector development is really going to be the key to Ghana’s development. The two main reasons I currently identify are:
1. the private sector will employ the large segment of the population that is currently unemployed (providing reliable income for employees and even wealth creation for many entrepreneurs), and
2. This will also increase the taxable base so that the government agencies have a source of internally generated revenue to use to deliver services and infrastructure to their citizens.

About the BUSAC fund: a grant which is awarded on a competitive basis to for-profit business associations who have identified constraints or challenges pertaining to their business environment, and would like to advocate with an institution to implement proposed solutions to their challenges. An example would be a farmer’s association lobbying their government for improved roads to their markets, or a women’s artisan association lobbying a bank for different credit terms for their members.

Challenges facing implementation: These are especially relevant in the North of Ghana, where I am living and working. Some of the northern associations simply do not have the skills and capacity to access the fund. These are usually the poorest and those that could benefit the most from access to the fund. For example, the BUSAC fund has been advertising the fund in the South of Ghana by printing ads in newspapers. I live in a District capital, and as far as I know there is no where I can buy a newspaper in town. At about GHc1 per paper, few can afford to purchase it regularly. Many others are illiterate and couldn’t read it even if they could afford it. Another challenge that I’m worried about, is the fund providing money to associations who use it to lobby their local governments. This alone is a great thing because it opens dialogue between the government body and the association, but the resources of the District governments are very tight and the government may not be able to respond to the requests of the association. If not handled properly, this could lead to further distrust and poor relationships between businesses and the government bodies.

However, a positive outcome of the workshop was that the members of the District Governments were open with their criticisms and suggestions for the fund implementation. And that the facilitators seemed to take their suggestions seriously, hopefully with the intent of improving fund requirements for implementation during the second round of funding in 2010. It’s great to see governments having open dialogue with development partners (donors), to ensure that funds actually go to help those who need it!