Deputy Finance Minister, Hon. Dr. Stephen Amoah has admonished beneficiaries of SME Growth and Opportunity (SME GO) programme to make effective utilization of monies they will receive under the initiative.
He has also urged them to ensure that monies they will receive are not used for other purpose than what they were given for.
“This is not the time to live any life that will be dysfunctional to your business…Let us make good use of this money”.
Making the above call at the holding of the Ashanti region’s version of the nationwide sensitization on the initiative, held on Monday, 2nd September, 2024, the Deputy Minister underscored SME Growth and Opportunity programm as unprecedented, considering the huge amount of money that SMEs will be given.
He underlined Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Ghana EXIM Bank and Development Bank Ghana as the principal implementing agencies and that GHs 8.2 billion will be deployed for Ghanaian beneficiaries.
The Deputy Minister briefed that government will support GEA with GHs 200 million for high-growth SMEs through the provision of small scale grants and loans of up to 2 years at highly subsidized rates.
Ghana EXIM Bank will also be supported with GHs 500 million to offer SMEs highly subsidized financial support for both capital and operating expenditures and offer capacity building to programme beneficiaries.
The Development Bank Ghana will also commit a total of about GHs 1.2 billion to support SMEs through participating financial institutions.
SME Growth and Opportunity programme according to him is a way of ensuring that those who are ready to create and grow their own businesses are given the opportunity in terms of financing to build and create more jobs so as to mitigate the impact of unemployment in the Ghanaian society.
He premised the foregoing on the fact that, SMEs account for about 92% of existing companies, 85% of manufacturing jobs and 70% of GDP
Dr. Stephen Amoah said the objective is to implement a sustainable financing framework that allows for both the private and public sectors to scale up financial and technical support towards SME growth and expansion.
About SME Growth and Opportunity programme
The initiative prioritizes targeted interventions that supports the Government’s goal of creating “SME champions” that can take Ghanaian products and innovations global.
The programme will be coordinated by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Moreover, the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Ghana EXIM Bank, the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) and IFC will be the principal agencies driving the Growth and Opportunity programme.
These institutions will offer support to programme beneficiaries directly and indirectly through PFIs.
