650,000 jobs saved through Coronavirus Alleviation Programme - Government

The government of Ghana has said it saved some 650,000 jobs in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) sector through the launch and operationalisation of the GH¢750 million Coronavirus Alleviation Programme – Business Support Scheme (CAP-BuSS).

The support, according to caretaker Finance Minister Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, “mitigated the impact of the pandemic on several” MSMEs.

Presenting the 2021 budget and economic statement on the floor of Parliament on Friday, 12 March 2021 the Majority Leader said “the government, through the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) collaborated with over 80 business associations and key participating financial institutions (PFIs) to facilitate timely disbursement of the funds”.

As of end-December 2020, “about GH¢412.88 million had been disbursed to support 277,511 businesses of which 69 percent were female-owned”, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs said.

The Suame lawmaker said “as an off-shoot, the CAP-BuSS has created pathways to formalising the large informal sector given that over 800,000 Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) were generated, and over 10,000 businesses registrations activated”.

CAP-BuSS, he noted, “also enhanced financial inclusion as close to 60 percent of the beneficiaries secured bank accounts for participating in the scheme”.

In the financial sector, Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu noted that the policy and regulatory measures rolled out by the Bank of Ghana, including the provision of GH¢77 billion worth of support to borrowers (between March and June 2020) “enhanced liquidity in the banking sector, preserved capital buffers, and offered relief to customers”.

“These measures also enabled banks and specialised deposit-taking institutions to provide support to critical sectors of the economy to mitigate the adverse impact of the pandemic”, he added.