The Ghana Hotels Association has rejected claims that its members submitted multiple applications for government’s COVID-19 stimulus package for businesses.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Mrs. Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, had recently indicated that some hoteliers were submitting family names under the same business to access the fund in a deliberate attempt to take advantage of the system.
She made the claim in response to an allegation made by the hoteliers association that only two percent of its members got access to the stimulus package.
But speaking to Citi Business News, President of the Ghana Hotels Association, Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike denied the allegation describing it as an attempt by the NBSSI to make excuses for its inefficiency at disbursing the fund.
“Now what we understood by that process is that, if a hotel applies for the loan, they will check the name of that hotel against the list that the association has provided to be sure that the applicant was a member of the association. So if they have put all this information aside and have decided to take a blanket look at the applications and not making reference to the list that we sent and you are now coming out to say the hotelier and indeed the association are presenting multiple entries and all those things I don’t get it. Remember that it’s not every hotel that is a member of the Ghana Hotels Association. It is turning out that four months after the application started because they have not been able to disburse money to any of our members, they are going to use this as a reason or excuse to say they haven’t been able to disburse. That’s very unfortunate,” he said.
As part of government’s efforts towards mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on businesses, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched a GH¢600 million Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) business support scheme intended to aid small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs).
