The Ghana Enterprises Agency has signed a grant award contract with 135 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to disburse more than 20 million cedis under the second phase of the COVID-19 Response Grant programme.
The programme, under the World Bank Ghana Economic Transformation Project, is expected to spur the economic recovery of SMEs, and provide liquidity and support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to enable them to adjust and grow out of the COVID-19 crisis in selected sectors of the economy.
The nationwide grant programme, with an additional grant size of GHC38 million, will focus on SMEs with a strong focus on Ghanaian export and export-oriented firms.
The project in the first phase disbursed GHS28.7 million to more than 370 SMEs between September 2021 to March 2022 with 158 women-owned businesses as beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries of the GEA SME Grant programme have also created a minimum of 134 new permanent and 156 casual jobs within the period.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, the Chief Executive Officer of GEA, said the goal of the Grant programme was to ensure that businesses were resilient and ready to help transform the economy.
She said the programme was designed to try and strengthen Ghana’s economy, build industries, and strengthen the business ecosystem so that it would stand the test of time to deal with any shocks or challenges.
Mrs Yankey-Ayeh said the government’s agenda was to support MSMEs and to also strengthen women-owned businesses.
“I’m always available to ensure that you grow your businesse, transform them and you’re able to also employ other people so utilised the funds well,” she said.
The second phase of intervention was targeting about 400 small, and medium enterprises to give them support to sustain and grow their business.
On her part, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, a Deputy Minister of Trade, reiterated the government’s resolve to support SMEs to recover from the devastating socio-economic impacts of the COVID 19 crisis.
“During this grant awards signing ceremony, I’m happy to witness a new set of SMEs being given grants to support them to recover,” she said.
She encouraged the businesses to use technology to transform their operations.
The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) – an agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, is one of the key Technical Implementing Agencies (TIAs) through which the World Bank Funded Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP) is deploying grants as part of government’s initiatives to promote private investments and firm growth in non-resource-based sectors.
Source: newsghana.com.gh