Business owners at he town hall meeting in Mion
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises(MSMEs) in the Mion District of the Northern region have scored the government 43% in terms of access to Covid-19 support packages in the district.
The findings were from a research conducted by Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) through its Baobab Initiative for Social Accountability on Government’s Response to Covid-19 (BISA) project funded by Star Ghana Foundation and Foreign Commonwealth Development Office(FCDO).
The research revealed that only 136 people benefited from the Mion district.
The rationale of the BISA project is to assess the impact of government support on MSMEs and how effective the government support has been from the perspective of the beneficiaries.
It was also aimed at enhancing citizens’ access to information on the government’s relief packages for MSMEs in the era of COVID-19 and to assess the effectiveness of government support to MSMEs in Northern Ghana.
The project assessment was done in the Northern, Savannah, and North East regions within 7 MMDAs.
The areas used to assess the district performance included information dissemination/public education 39%, application and selection 43%, benefits/impacts of government support to MSMEs 56%, accountability issues and transparency issues 27%, and an overall percentage score of 43%.
In 2020, the government introduced the Corona Virus Alleviation Programme-Business Support Scheme(CAP-Buss) with Gh 100 billion to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on the lives and livelihoods of Ghanaians and to ensure that Ghanaians quickly recover from the pandemic with a stronger and more resilient economy.
Under the Ghana Alleviation and Revitalization of Enterprises Support(Ghana Care/Obaatan-pa Programme, an amount of Gh 600 million was also allocated to specifically support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises(MSMEs).
Again, an amount of Gh 1.2 billion CAP-Buss was approved by parliament to address the disruption to economic activities due to the pandemic as well as support from IMF ($100m) and World Bank ($2 billion loan).
Speaking at a town hall meeting at the Mion District Assembly, Gmabi A. Philip, Technical Advisor, Policy and Governance, GDCA said the overall scores from the various districts the assessment took place indicates that the support from the government to the pole did not go down well.
“The people have indicated several reasons and in terms of information dissemination it wasn’t adequate and also the application and selection process most of them who were illiterates felt the process was difficult and so they could not go through with it whiles some were not abreast with the requirements to benefit from the COVID-19 packages.”
He indicated that the citizens suggested that the various assemblies should be resources enough to enable them to go round to rural communities to ensure that they are aware of such packages from the government.
Mr. Philip disclosed that their findings showed that most people felt that the distribution of the COVID-19 packages was politicized because some people got the information about the packages from political leaders
“ Others felt that it was meant for only members of a certain political party and so people were discouraged to apply so we will want to challenge a government that supports of this kind should be devoid of partisan issues.”
The Technical Advisor urged the government to decentralize such a process to officers at the various MMDAs so that they will be well informed to pass the message to the citizens to benefit from the support.
He, however, debunked claims that the assessment is meant to tarnish the government’s image adding that the report will rather help the government to be able to correct its mistakes and better the processes the next time such support is launched.
The Mion District Coordinating Director, Issaka Musah, who represented the DCE at the town hall meeting encouraged business owners to ensure that they register their business and operate legally to enable them to benefit from government support programmes.
He thanked Ghana Developing Communities Association (GDCA) and its partners for their continuous support to the various MMDAs in the Northern region.
FROM Eric Kombat, Mion