Kosi Yankey-Ayeh
THE NATIONAL Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has disbursed in excess of GH₵400 million of government’s GH₵750 million committed to the Covid-19 Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme (CAPBuSS) for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
The disbursement which started in June this year had so far benefited about 230,000 applicants, of which 72 per cent were women.
Executive Director of NBSSI, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, gave the information in an interview on Monday at the Ghana Women Entrepreneurship Summit (GWES) held in Accra.
In spite of government’s intervention to support businesses through CAPBuss, she spoke of the need for more funding that would be readily accessible to MSMEs in the country.
“One thing CAPBuss has taught us is that our MSMEs have really not had access to finance. They have not had access to financial support or inclusion as data has shown that up to 60 per cent do not have access to commercial bank accounts,” she said.
With the passing of the Ghana Enterprise Agency (GEA) Bill that paved the way for the conversion of NBSSI to the GEA however, the executive director shared her optimism of addressing challenges associated with financing for businesses through the setting up of an MSME fund as a component of the GEA bill.
Much attention, she said, would also be paid to the needs of medium scale businesses which had been overlooked previously.
“The bill will have a holistic overview of how best we can support enterprises in Ghana to reach their full potential,” she said.
Speaking on the GH₵90 million NBSSI-Mastercard Foundation stimulus package, Mrs. Yankey-Ayeh urged over 500,000 applicants who sought financial reliefs in excess of GH₵2 billion to exercise restraint as the board was working assiduously to start disbursement in the coming week.
“One of the things we are working on now is doing a lot of the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) verifications which is one of the challenges we always face when we do these applications. We want to get the right data from GCNet system,” she said.
By Issah Mohammed