The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has reiterated assurance of impartially disbursing funds from the Coronavirus Alleviation Program Business Support Scheme.
This assurance is in response to claims by the Ghana Hoteliers Association that most of its members have been denied access to government’s COVID-19 stimulus package for businesses.
Officials of the association had taken on the Executive Director of NBSSI, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, for allegedly claiming that some members of the hoteliers filed multiple requests for the stimulus package.
But in an interview with Citi Business News, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, said she did not make such claim against hoteliers.
Yankey-Ayeh insisted that she was taken out of context.
“The conversation and the information we’ve given is on the transparency of the project and…some of the challenges that we faced. I mentioned that a few of them [businesses] had people coming with dead relatives information and requesting for support. And I think I made that as a general statement, not specifically targeted [at hotoliers]. But it’s easy for maybe an association to think it was being targeted because it was brought up during the conversation by the presenter. I haven’t really commented much on this because I think it’s a non-starter and I personally believe that the conversation was taken out of context,” she explained.
The NBSSI Executive Director added that the Board is working to effectively disburse the funds to businesses in need.
“At the beginning of this program, we did mention to people that as much as possible, because of the size and the magnitude of the demand and also the size of funds we have, it will really be important if people applied once. As much as possible we will have to focus on how best it is that we deliver to as many people as possible,” she added.
