The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI), says it is yet to meet government to request for modalities that will be used to advance the 600 million soft loan scheme for small to medium scale enterprises, SMEs.
This follows President Akufo-Addo’s announcement on Sunday April 7, 2020, during a nationwide address to Ghanaians on additional measures aimed at reducing the negative impact of the spread of the corona virus pandemic on businesses.
He stated that government in collaboration with the National Board for Small Scale Industries, Business and Trade Associations and selected commercial and rural banks, will roll out a soft loan scheme up to a total of six hundred million cedis which will have a one year moratorium and two year repayment period for micro small and medium scale businesses.
He further noted that the scheme will sustain the country’s affected industries and address the distraction in economic activities caused by the pandemic.
Speaking to Citi Business News, the Chief Executive Officer of AGI, Seth Tuwm Akuboah, lauded the initiative and said AGI is looking forward to meeting government on the terms and conditions attached to the loan package.
‘I think that definitely the situation has affected businesses across board. Small, medium, large companies have all been affected in some way, because the lock-down for two weeks will definitely be a big challenge to businesses. I’m happy that the government has recognised that indeed, businesses are going to be affected for which reason they are coming up with a package that would stimulate business development. So, we love the effort and we appreciate government’s support in this arrangement. But the details of the financing arrangement hasn’t come out yet, so, for now all we will say is that it’s a good initiative. We will look into the details when it comes out before we can make an assessment of the extent to which it will help businesses. But in principle is a laudable idea and we welcome it,” he said.
With the cumulative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic expected to cause Ghana 9.5 billion Cedis, President Akufo-Addo has already announced that all households and small to medium scale enterprises are to benefit from this stimulus package of 1billion Ghana Cedis.