Investor urges SMEs to use transparency to unlock financing schemes

A three-day Project Finance 2019 Conference, an event to help private sector mobilise funds, has commenced in Accra with a call on businesses to ensure transparency in their practice to unlock available financing schemes.

Mr Mike Carter, the Founder and Head Partner of the International Financial Partners, who made the call, said transparency is a key requirement for global funding to ensure that they were putting their funds in a trusted venture.

The Conference, which aims at helping industries to access international funding with its attendant conditions, is organised by the Trustwork Oakbuild International Limited (TWOBIL) and the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL).

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Carter recounted his experience in 2016, when on a visit to Ghana adding that anytime he requested information from businesses, it was met with defensiveness and this would not help businesses to attract more global finance.

Dr Emmanuel Tweneboah Senzu, the Director of Technical Service for the TWOBIL, said it has become difficult for the private sector access funding globally adding that governments sometimes access those international funding not on the merit of their documentations but rather due to the sovereign guarantee backing them.

He said in a developing economy, our economic indicators are not independent on themselves as both the private and public sectors are clamped together.

This, he said, has made it difficult for investors to separate public sector performance from that of the private sector adding that the Conference would empower the private sector to distinguish itself and perform better with access to finance.

Mr Kofi Obeng-Ayirebi, Head of the Project Finance Conference Secretariat, said it is time for Africa to join the race in sourcing for funds on the international market to fund various developmental projects.

He said securing finance globally has the potential to bridge the huge infrastructure development gap in Ghana and on the African continent.

Mr Obeng-Ayirebi said the world has used the vehicle of international finance over the years to address the needed financial resources for various infrastructure products adding that: “The time has come for Africa to rise up, we cannot sit down to expect handouts”.

Mr Kelvin Sowah, the Director of Sales and Marketing at the GCGL, said over the years, his company has identified that accessing finance has been the major challenge encountered by Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and the business community.

He said the three-day conference is designed to support the business community to go through the various processes and documentations needed for accessing finance in the global financial space.