WISE Network Ghana has organized a day’s forum and exhibition for young female business owners in the Accra metropolis to mark this year’s Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The event was held at Tarragon Edge SMEs ecosystem (T-Edge Hub) which provides a growth-oriented platform for knowledge, capacity building and resource sharing exclusively for SMEs, consultants and investors.

The well-attended event dubbed ‘Women Entrepreneurs Forum and Exhibition’ was held under the auspices of Upshift Global; Club G100, Financial Inclusion Africa and Genevieve Pearl Consult.

Two leading Ghanaian experts in business management who spoke at the event advised young entrepreneurs that the survival of their businesses is hinged on bookkeeping and record analysis.

According to them, bookkeeping which is keeping accurate financial records could be used to gauge the health of the businesses.

Dr Akorfa Ahiafor, the MD/CEO of Jireh Microfinance Limited, described bookkeeping as the difference between success and failure of businesses.

She added that bookkeeping helps businesses to plan their budgets, explaining that budgets are vital for businesses as they are the financial guidelines to success.

“With bookkeeping, you can assess your financial resources and manage income and expenses”, Dr Ahiafor stated.

“So we entrepreneurs fail to keep records of businesses, we will fail. It is not enough to keep records but to analyse the records as well”.

Hajia Amina Sammo, a leading Financial Literacy Consultant, added that bookkeeping makes filing a tax return easier for businesses that practice bookkeeping.

With a proper organization of records on your earnings, expenditure and others you won’t have to worry about scrambling for receipts and invoices because all your records are properly documented, she explained.

“Organization of financial records is very important. You should be able to easily assess your financial information at anytime”.

This will help when it comes to applying for grants, loans, or even attracting investors”, Hajia Sammo said.

Looking at the importance role bookkeeping and record analysis plays in the survival of businesses, the two experts encouraged the young female entrepreneurs not to be ashamed of sending their business figures to individuals and institutions to analyse for them.

Addressing the exhibitors, the President of WISE Network Ghana, Dr Genevieve Obuobi Duncan, said: “It is important for us to support businesses so that they can scale up and be sustainable”.

The exhibitors expressed their appreciation to WISE Network Ghana and its sponsors for providing the platform for them to showcase their products.