Ms. Kosi Antwiwaa Yankey the Executive Director for the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) says about 200,000 Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will benefit from government’s GH¢600m stimulus package.
There has been concerns over how the distribution of the monies will be done and also which businesses will benefit.
Ms Yankey speaking at a press briefing said they will use the data available to share the money to these business and so far they are projecting that about 200,000 businesses will benefit from the package.
“There are three categories we are looking at, the micro which makes up about 80% of the population in terms of the sector. For the small, you have about 15% of the medium is about 1% of the sector. In view of that, we have looked at it an analyzed that about 200,000 businesses will benefit considering that the micro-businesses make up a huge chunk of the population, so we have done it in a way that it is representative of the entire sector”.
In a televised address to the country on March 27, 2020, this year, President Akufo-Addo announced a GH¢1.2 billion Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) as part of enhanced measures to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on households, contain disruption to economic activities and to rescue and revitalise industries.
He also announced additional reliefs such as extension of tax filing date from April to June; two per cent reduction of interest rates by banks effective April 1, 2020, and grant of six months moratorium on principal repayment by banks to entities in the airline and hospitality industries.
The CAP, which was subsequently approved by Parliament on April 9, dedicated GH¢600 million as soft loans for businesses, especially those in the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) sector.
