Leadership of the Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies, says it is ready to support government in the disbursement of its GHS600 million stimulus package set aside to assist small and medium scale enterprises affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The disbursement of the amount, which will have a one-year moratorium and two-year repayment period, is expected to start this month.
Executive Secretary of the Association, Tweneboah Kodua Boakye, who spoke to Citi Business News after the Association made a donation to the National COVID-19 Treatment Centre at the Ga East Municipal Hospital, said they’re well-positioned with over 540 branch networks in all 16 regions and 6 million clients to disburse the package.
“The Savings and Loans companies have the structures to also help the disbursement of these funds to SMEs. We can do the evaluation, the recovery, the monitoring and all these things. We can also continue to offer advisory services because we have the networks across the country, in all the 16 regions. And so we believe that if the government also uses the savings and loans fraternity to do the evaluation and disbursement of funds to support, it will also boost the liquidity position of the companies and help strengthen the companies themselves.”
“It will also give the opportunity for government to even know what these companies are doing and one can be very certain and sure that recovery of loans is going to happen. And so we believe that we are in a better position for the government to also pay attention to the Savings and Loans fraternity.”
The outbreak of novel Coronavirus in Ghana led to government imposing a partial lockdown on Accra, Tema, Kasoa and Kumasi.
This caused most businesses in the country’s major economic centres to slow down, amid tightened financial conditions.
To bring relief to Ghanaians, President Akufo-Addo announced a GHS600 million soft loan scheme with a two-year repayment plan to support micro, small and medium scale businesses.
The Finance Committee of Parliament has also given authorization to the Minister of Finance to spend GHS1.2 billion from the Contingency Fund.
There’s also a request to amend the Petroleum Revenue Management Act to use portions of the Ghana Heritage Fund to help the fight against the virus.
Externally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has approved a disbursement of US$1 billion to Ghana to help address the urgent fiscal and balance of payments needs that Ghana is facing in the wake of the novel Coronavirus pandemic.