Put Bacs On The Path Of Financial Sustainability

The financial viability of an Organization is the ability of that Organization to cover all its expenses through the income generated by its activity without recourse to external funds. It is one of the key criteria for funders when they have to support a development project. Since 1995, the Rural Enterprises Programme (REP) has been launched following a tripartite partnership between the Government of Ghana (GoG), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support rural entrepreneurs and enhance livelihoods in rural areas. To achieve this, some structures have been set up at the district level, close to rural and semi-urban communities to provide them with business development services. These are the Business Advisory Centers (BACs). However, after several years of having these centers in place, BACs continue to rely heavily on REP funding to function. In fact, 80% of their financial resources come from the REP, which finances almost all their training programs. While the REP is about to stop from the year 2020, it is imperative to find ways and means to continue to work after that date. This will not be possible if they fail to be financially viable or in other words to be financially self-sufficient. This is the purpose of this research which allowed us to identify some options that would allow BACs to achieve their financial autonomy. To reach this goal, we had to carry out a global diagnosis of the BACs by considering a sample of 10. This diagnosis made it possible to highlight the strengths and the weaknesses of these centers as well as the opportunities to be seized and the threats to be prepared to face. At the end of this work, it appears that for the BACs to reach their financial independence, it will be necessary to:

• Develop new services by targeting other categories of clients
• Train and build the capacity of BAC employees to deliver the services themselves without the intervention of Service Providers, which will save money
• Make funds available to BACs in the form of grants or loans at a preferential rate so that they can meet the financial needs of MSEs and generate profits through interest earned
• Make a segmentation of customers and be more interested in customers already in business, who are willing to pay the cost of training
• Etc.