The National Poultry Farmers Association is appealing to government to consider giving them some form of concession in the disbursement of the stimulus package for businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The farmers, who say over 500,000 crates of eggs, are going waste due to low patronage fear if they’re not considered and treated differently, their situation could escalate.
The National Board for Small Scale Industries, NBSSI, has commenced processes to select beneficiaries of the one billion cedis stimulus package for SMEs.
But the Secretary of the Ghana National Egg Campaign, Comfort Kyerewa Acheampong, told Citi Business News any further delay in alleviating the plight of poultry farmers will be dire for the industry.
“I have applied for the package, but looking at the criteria, associations are not qualified, except individuals in the Association like the Poultry Farmers Association, who qualify per the criteria set-up can also apply for it. As a group, like the Poultry Farmers Association, we cannot, but if the government can work a special package for the farmers, it will be able to ease the problems on their head because some of the farmers have started laying off their workers. They are also losing money everyday because thousands of crates are being buried in the ground. Even if you want to give the eggs to people, who brings it to them, where do we put it. These are the challenges they are having now,” she noted.
Following the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, government has indicated that the cumulative effect of the pandemic will cost Ghana GHS9.505 billion.
To address some of the expected challenges, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved the disbursement of US$1 billion interest-free loan to Ghana to be drawn under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF).
Government also announced that all households and small to medium scale enterprises are to benefit from a stimulus package of one billion Ghana cedis.
Over 14,000 businesses apply for GHS1bn stimulus package for SMEs – NBSSI
The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) earlier announced that over fourteen thousand business owners have applied for government’s one billion stimulus package.
According to NBBSI, majority of the applicants are within the agribusiness and education sectors.