Entrepreneurship Development and New Business Start-Ups: Challenges and Prospects for Ghanaian Entrepreneurs’

First, in addressing ethical and confidential issues, the study sought the consent of the participants before the 

interviews, and assured all participants of anonymity and confidentiality, and vividly explained what the information 

gathered in the study would be used for. This orientation also helped the participants to become familiar and 

comfortable with the scope of information required; thus, they were confident to respond to the questions more 

appropriately. 

Using Ghana as a case study, the study examines the prospects for new and existing entrepreneurs in Ghana in 

terms of the support initiatives from government and non-governmental institutions and the numerous challenges 

they face. It investigates some of the key challenges facing SMEs in terms of their awareness of the various funding 

sources and availability of funds, the level of management training, and other challenges facing entrepreneurs and 

SMEs. To achieve the objectives and goals of the study, 31 participants were interviewed. Qualitative approach was 

used which helped to understand and obtain critical information from the participants and also probe further when 

necessary. As Creswell (2007) noted, an interview protocol is a “predesigned form used to record information 

collected during an observation or interview,” which enables the researcher to organise the entire interview 

process, including time allocations for the questions and how to begin/end the interview.  The research comprises 

sole proprietorship businesses and firms with employees from 5 to 100. Data was analyzed following Braun & 

Clarke, (2006) Thematic content analysis by first -transcribing, generating codes, searching for themes, reviewing 

themes, defining themes and interpreting the findings..  

Four main themes emerged as the challenges faced by entrepreneurs and new business start-ups. Find the main 

themes and the subthemes in Table 1.