The Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) has facilitated a meeting between micro, small and medium enterprises and some four commercial banks to address challenges that businesses typically face in accessing credit.
The authority’s intervention comes after exporters complained they were unable or face difficulties to access credit facilities from the formal banking sector.
GEPA’s approach to getting businesses and banks on the same wavelength was to hold a day’s forum for the two parties to come together and understand the various challenges they need to navigate.
Madam Afua Asabea Asare, CEO at GEPA told Citi Business News the move will ensure a win-win engagement between the banks and the MSMEs
“It is very important for GEPA because most of the time we get exporters coming to us, small and medium enterprises as well seeking for help. You go through a whole lot with them and you realize that the help they really need is about financing. GEPA is not in that position to help with financing. So, we thought that we should bring in the banks to discuss their issues. We want the banks to see how best they can make it easy for them to access funding for what they do,” she said.
The banks that attended the forum were Fidelity Bank, Stanbic Bank, Prudential Bank and GCB Bank.
