Special funds to support SMEs soon

Published in the Daily Graphic on 18/02/2010, pg 32

Story: Matilda Attram
THE Government is to create special funds to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country.
It is doing this through financial institutions such as the Export Development and Investment Fund (EDIF) through the reduction of interest rates to encourage people to engage in small-scale enterprises.
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Hannah Tetteh, said this at the grand finale of the MTN 'Lift Your Game' show in Accra.
'Lift Your Game' is a TV reality show set out to help create jobs for people through small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
It was organised by the Awesome Ventures in collaboration with the MTN as a title sponsor and other supporting companies which included the Business Development Services (BDS) and the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF), among others.
Ms Tetteh said the government could only make money available to individuals in private enterprises through financial institutions which could evaluate risks involved when giving out money.
She said setting up an enterprise was a risk in an individual's life that needed courage and perseverance to succeed.
"Being in the enterprise business is not easy but anyone who has courage in everything he does succeeds," she said.
She encouraged finalists of the competition to inspire and motivate others in the society, especially the unemployed, to engage themselves in private enterprises, adding that "if 90 per cent of Ghanaians are employed by themselves, the country would have succeeded in solving her unemployment situation".
The Chief Executive Officer of Awesome Ventures, Mr Cyril Heyman, pointed out that the company believed in growing small businesses that could assess loans based on their viability, competence, and character of their promoters regardless of the size of their collateral.
He said the mission of the company was to inspire people engaged in the SME sector through the media and to organise programmes to improve on the development of the nation.
"With quality of life, we believe that it is possible to have a Ghana where the eight Millennium Development Goals are localised at the national, regional and even district levels. We do this by harnessing the power of partnership," he stated.
The Marketing Manager of MTN Ghana, Mr George Andah, said the initiative was to motivate members in society and expressed the hope that it had equipped participants with new skills to manage their businesses.
The programme ended with five finalists answering questions on business. At the end, a 28-year-old first degree holder and farmer, Ms Jesse Bartels, was adjudged the grand winner.
She took home a grand price of a fully paid VIP ticket package to the South Africa 2010 tournament, a mobile phone and an MTN modem, with the other four taking home a mobile phone and an MTN modem each.