The government’s small loans scheme for micro, small and medium-scale enterprises to counter the effects of the novel coronavirus disease on business in Ghana has begun to roll out in the Upper West Region.
Speaking to Asaase Radio this morning, Muhammed Abdul-Moomin, Upper West regional director of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries ( NBSSI ), said that 10,104 business operators in the Upper West Region have applied to benefit from the stimulus package.
Applications to the scheme closed on Friday 26 June.
Pay back over two years
According to the business award writers, the stimulus, worth up to GHC1 billion, is the core of the government’s emergency Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP-BuSS). It was launched on 19 May by the NBSSI in collaboration with business and trade associations and selected commercial and rural banks.The scheme offers soft loans at an interest rate of 3% with a one-year moratorium and are payment period of two to three years.The Wa municipality has registered the highest number of applicants in the Upper West (4,385) followed by Sissala East with 1,022, Jirapa (816), Nandom with 813 and Sissala West with 786. Lambussie attracted the next biggest volume of applications (612), followed by Lawra on 500.
Economists expect the cost of COVID-19 to
Ghana’s economy to be in excess of GHC9 billion.
The government created the CAP-BusS package
to fuel the fight against this blow to business life.
Wa East produced the eighth biggest source of
inquiries about the scheme in the Upper West
(395 applications), followed by Wa West and Nadowli District (350 each). Bottom of the pile was Daffiama Bussie Issa District, with just 75
small and medium-business operators applying to register with the NBSSI.
The Board received up to 2,000 telephone calls a day from anxious business owners after it
launched the stimulus package in May
Cash or kind
Abdul-Moomin told Asaase Radio that some
business operators in the region have already started receiving their packages.
He was quick to add that so far it is those who
applied for GHC2,000 or less who have received any money
The government has also established a COVID-19 National Trust Fund to receive donations in
cash or kind for onward disbursement to individuals who have been affected badly by the disease outbreak.
Source:|upperwestmedia.net|