The Ghana Export-Import (GEXIM) Bank has expressed its dedication to overcoming the long-standing financial challenges faced by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana by offering concessional loans and grants.
“We will provide SMEs, not only with capital, but at concessionary interest rates of nine percent per annum to address the access to finance challenge that SMEs have had all this while,” Bright Evans Darko, Head of SME Department, GEXIM, said.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, he mentioned this after the final regional sensitization exercise for the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Growth and Opportunity (SME GO) initiative in Accra on Wednesday, September 18.
Climaxing the 16 regional engagements with SMEs and other stakeholders, the Greater Accra sensitization officially launched the SME GO initiative for implementation.
Interested businesses were encouraged by Mr. Darko to promptly register for the program by contacting the Ghana EXIM Bank, Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), and the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) for assistance.
For those SMEs applying for financial support under the SME GO initiative, he advised waiting for a 30-day response period from the participating financial institutions.
Additionally, he indicated that the Bank would provide technical and production support to small businesses through its future modern food processing plant, aimed at enhancing value addition and exporting Ghanaian products.
In a speech delivered on behalf of the GEXIM CEO, Ms. Rosemary Beryl Archer, Deputy Chief Executive Officer (CEO), stated that the Bank would offer loans, technical assistance, and advisory services to the SMEs involved.
This approach, Ms. Beryl Archer noted, aligns with the Bank’s commitment to supporting the government’s goal of transforming the Ghanaian economy into an export-led one.
“In the last seven years, the Bank has made a deliberate attempt to provide various forms of support to Ghanaian SMEs with the recent one being a capacity building programme for over hundred Ghanaian SMEs by a team of experts from Thailand,” she said.
Mr Michael Okyere Baafi, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Trade and Industry, urged the participating financial institutions not to renege on their pledge to the initiative, saying, “the sensitisation is over… the SMEs want to see you in action.”
He pledged the Ministry’s commitment to working collaboratively with the participating financial institutions to ensure that the SMEs would have access to affordable finance to take their businesses to the next level.
Launched by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on July 16, 2024, the SME GO initiative is to assist Ghanaian SMEs to scale up and build their capacities as sustainable businesses able to compete favourably in the international marketplace.
Under the initiative, SMEs would be given the needed funding, requisite technology and innovation, knowledge enhancement and other relevant resources and tools to aid their growth into international giants.