Bosomtwe Rural Bank assists SMEs with micro-finance loans

Kuntenase (Ash), July 5, GNA - About 1,400 small and medium scale entrepreneurs have benefited from a 6.3 billion micro-finance scheme to expand their businesses.

Mr Benjamin Osei-Boateng, Acting Credit Manager of the Bank, who spoke to the GNA at Kuntenase on Wednesday said recipients were given cash amounts ranging from 500,000 to 20,000,000 cedis depending on the size of their business enterprises.

He said beneficiaries comprised, artisans, petty-traders, small-scale vegetable farmers and disabled cobblers at the Jachie Sheltered Employment Training Centre at Kuntenase in the Bosomtwe Atwima Kwanwoma District where the Bank has its headquarters. The Credit Manager said women were mostly targeted to benefit from the scheme since there were links between the empowerment of women and poverty alleviation.

Mr Osei-Boateng said beneficiaries were asked to form groups before the loans were given out to them since that was the only way they could meet the requirements for accessing loans from the Bank He expressed satisfaction that loan recovery was not going to be a problem for the Bank since it had been observed that the savings of individual beneficiaries had gone up tremendously since the loans were given to them, adding, "this is a positive sign for redemption of the loans".