More than 200,000 businesses to benefit from GH¢600 million stimulus package

More than 200,000 Micro, small and medium Enterprises are expected to benefit from the GH¢600 million COVID-19 Alleviation Programme (CAP) Business Support Scheme.

Mrs Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, the Executive Director of the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), who announced this at a briefing at the Ministry of Information, on Thursday, said steps were being taken to operationalise the scheme soon.

She said about 80 per cent of the businesses are in the micro category. President Nana Addo Akufo-Addo committed GH¢600 million as a stimulus package to support the hardest hit Ghanaian businesses in the category of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in both the formal and informal sectors. The MSMEs make up about 70 percent of the Ghanaian economy.

Mrs Yankey-Ayeh said the NBSSI had over the past few weeks had deep and extensive engagements with multiple stakeholders, including financial institutions, associations, trade groups, service providers, and consultants to ensure that they were all aligned with the products that the business scheme would roll out to achieve a common goal.

“We have been supported by our Board and the Ministry of Finance and their team to ensure that we work assiduously to implement the project to all qualifying entities,” she said.

“The NBSSI has also worked closely with various stakeholders to come out with eligibility criteria and really tighten it in such a way that it allows people to have the option to apply for the facility”.

Mrs Yankey-Ayeh said to ensure the success, efficiency and transparency of the programme, an online portal had been developed to be approved by the Board of Directors, and it would be stress-tested by independent consultants to ensure that all implementation challenges were minimised and tested.

“We will also create the opportunity for those who are not technology savvy or have limited access in remote districts to have access to partake in the business support scheme,” she said.

“We believe that we are in the position to operationalise the service soon. We also will be communicating to the general public as of today to get them ready to prepare,” Mrs Yankey-Ayeh added.