President launches GH¢8.2bn SME programme.

 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo yesterday launched an SME Growth and Opportunity programme which prioritises targeted interventions that support the government's goal of creating SME champions that can take Ghanaian products and innovations global.

Under the programme which is being financed by the government, and local and international financial institutions, an amount of GH¢8.2 billion has been made available, alongside technical and business support for participating SMEs.

President Akufo-Addo explained that the programme would be coordinated jointly by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Ghana Exim Bank and the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) will be the principal implementing agencies that will work without too many bureaucratic entanglements. 

Disbursement

President Akufo-Addo, assisted by some ministers, commenced disbursement of the funds, with some beneficiaries receiving GH¢1 million at the programme.

President Akufo-Addo explained further that these institutions would offer support to beneficiaries directly and indirectly through participating financial institutions such as the Ghana Exim Bank.

These banks, he noted, would be supported with some GH¢ 700 million to offer SMEs highly subsidised financial support for both capital and operating expenditures and offer capacity-building to programme beneficiaries.

A dedicated window for the 1D1F initiative is also to be set up to ensure optimal synergies within this structural project.

GEA, on the other hand, will be supported with some GH¢ 230 million and will target high-growth SMEs employing 100 persons or more with small-scale grants and loans of up to two years at highly subsidised rates. 

Newly created fund

President Akufo-Addo said the DBG would contribute to the initiative through its newly created MSME Innovate and Grow Fund. He added that through financial institutions, it would provide loans of up to five years for SMEs with tailored repayment conditions to support businesses and that the loan amount would be decided on a case-by-case basis out of an envelope of 1.4 billion CDs.

“The Ministry of Finance has successfully mobilised a total of 8.2 billion CDs from both public and private sector sources earmarked for disbursement to eligible small and medium-sized enterprises under the SME GO Programme,” he stated.

Innovation Hub

President Akufo-Addo announced that as part of the Growth and Opportunity Programme, for instance, Ghana Exim Bank would set up a novel food innovation hub within the next three months to support all MSMEs in the food industry with testing and scaling up production in the Standard Food Processing Pilot Plant.

He indicated that the Food Processing Pilot Plant would be located on the University of Ghana campus and would incorporate installed processing equipment, warehousing space, a testing lab and a suite for SMEs to interact with relevant regulatory authorities directly.

The plant, he added, would provide essentially a vital resource for food companies that were just starting out which did not have sufficient funding to purchase equipment for SMEs that needed to evaluate new processes and product lines.

Through this intervention, he said, the government would make the food processing process more readily available as this capacity-building initiative would ensure that any SME who might not have sufficient capital and technical capacity could pay a one-time fee at the pilot plant to access modern and sophisticated processing equipment that would allow the SME to produce at scale, while being supported by food scientists and other specialists.

President Akufo-Addo said Exim Bank officials would also be on hand to offer support with packaging and branding and generally meet relevant standards for beneficiaries of the plant to have their products ready for export.

GEA and DBG will also support programme beneficiaries with targeted training encompassing financial management, regulatory compliance, digitalisation in business, business plan development and many other topics.

An online application portal has been developed by our technology partners who will ensure that the screening process is fair and transparent and prioritises SMEs that can demonstrate robust growth prospects.

Indeed, after today's event, all interested SMEs can visit the GEA and Ghana Ex-Im websites and be directed to the portal to apply for programme support.