PEF promises more support to gov’t

The Private Enterprises Federation (PEF) has pledged to give more support to government following its rebranding and restructuring.

Chief Executive Officer of the Federation, Nana Osei-Bonsu, said the rebranding is in order to meet the needs of the private sector for more effective contribution to economic growth.

Known formerly as the Private Enterprise Foundation, the Federation will work to expand its membership base, strengthen member associations through collaborative engagement and advocacy, and provide research and findings on issues of peculiar interest to them.

Nana Osei-Bonsu said the continuing phenomenon of high cost of credit has to be corrected through consistent dialogue between government and the private sector leadership, an activity the rejuvenated PEF will undertake vigorously.

“We will also collaborate with the insurance association to work out a scheme for affordable insurance coverage to individuals and businesses under PEF, while working with financial institutions and some development partners to create a facility that will provide long-term credit, guarantees and other forms of financing at discount rates to PEF members.

“We will speedily collaborate with selected SME financial institutions and some development partners to create a facility that will provide long-term credit, credit guarantees and other forms of financing at discount rates to individual businesses who are members of PEF’s member associations.

“By this we hope to break the endemic and enduring challenge of lack of access to affordable credit that has plagued Ghanaian businesses all these years,” Nana Osei-Bonsu told the Business and Financial Times (B&FT) in an interview.

He said various studies have shown that the private sector is not performing well, hence the need to bring together associations of businesses and groupings to work together towards a common goal.

Nana Osei-Bonsu said global competition, the unwillingness of the public sector to relinquish business activities that could best be performed by the private sector, and recurring budget deficits are crippling the private sector.

“Other factors are high interest rates, deficient infrastructure, incessant power outages and water rationing.”

He said PEF has been rebranded to meet the development needs of the private sector through advocacy for efficient allocation of the country's resources, provision of requisite business development support services, and capacity building for sustainable private sector economic development.