SMIDO to roll out home-brewed financial scheme

Kumasi, May 10, GNA - The Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation (SMIDO) will soon roll out an ambitious home-brewed financial scheme.

The scheme, dubbed "Suame Magazine Industrial Financial Irrigation Scheme" (SMIFIS), is an institutional mechanism to mobilise resources from different sources into a regenerative pool fund. It will serve as a corporate collateral security to access credit facilities from the traditional banks for enterprise development, investment and general industrial development in Suame Magazine. Mr Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, a Development Planner and Consultant to SMIDO who initiated the concept, said SMIFIS was intended to give Suame Magazine a corporate identity to transact business with financial institutions in the country.

Briefing the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi on the concept, Mr Azongo said the scheme would also provide a basis for the government to channel its micro credit and small and medium scale enterprises support. This would help to reduce the risk and cost of recovery of government SME credit support for the artisans. Mr Azongo said products would be developed with financial partners under the SMIFIS to enable artisans acquire state-of-the art equipment. He said financial companies such as Data bank, SNNIT and Unibank have held discussions with SMIDO to explore partnership interest in the SMIFIS scheme.

Mr Azongo said under the scheme banking and non-banking financial institutions were expected to host SMIFIS in their institutions as investment, insurance and banking products whilst SMIDO mobilised resources into the host institutions as Suame Magazine incorporated. He said BUSAC fund had provided the initial support for the advocacy component of the project and expressed the hope that other stakeholders such as the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and the Ministry of Trade and Industry would cooperate to ensure the successful implementation of the scheme in Suame Magazine. 11 May 09