Ghana has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) to secure a $200 million facility for on-lending to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.
The signing of the MoU on May 10, 2024, was disclosed by the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, during the opening ceremony of the 3i Africa Summit on Monday, May 13, 2024.
“In furtherance of our objective of providing financial access to SMEs, the Minister for Finance and president of EBID signed last Friday in Togo, an MOU for a $200 million facility to be disbursed through the Ghana Commercial Bank and the Ghana EXIM Bank to SMEs in the country”, the President posited.
The President, delivering a keynote address at the Summit, iterated the Government’s commitment to fund the operations of SMEs at lower interest rates to sustain their operations.
Re-echoing the Government’s commitment to SMEs, the Minister for Finance Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, revealed that his outfit is finalizing an SME financing strategy which has components such as direct lending to SMEs, providing guarantees to financial institutions, reducing the cost of borrowing and supporting skills and innovation in the SME ecosystem through fintechs.
Low financing to SMEs continues to be a critical barrier to the acceleration of growth and development on the African continent. In Ghana, SMEs constitute 92% of manufacturing, 70% of GDP growth, and provide 80% of jobs.
According to the Finance Minister, the Government’s focus going forward is to generate growth within the country’s borders by increasing access to capital. This, he noted, cannot be achieved without a strong fintech infrastructure; an important requirement to address the efficiency of delivering capital to SMEs and reducing the risks of recovery of funds by financial institutions.
The 3i Africa Summit has brought together key players in the financial, investment, policy-regulatory and digital technology domains in Africa. These include 3 Heads of State, 10 Governors of Central Banks within and outside Africa including the Bank of Ghana’s Dr. Ernest Addison, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Dr. Olayemi Michael Cardoso and the National Bank of Rwanda’s Hon. John Rwangombwa.
In addition, there are over 150 Chief Executives and Senior Executives of FinTechs and Financial institutions across the globe including Serigne Dioum, CEO of MTN Group Fintech, Dr. Patrich Saidu Contech, CEO of Africa Fintech Network, Saurav Bhattacharya, CEO of Proxtera, Conrad Kraft, Strategic Advisor, DigitalEuro Association, and Co-Founder and CFO, Tradelite Solutions, Mariame MacIntosh Robinson, President of Qenta Inc., Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer at MAS.
Over the three-day period, the participants will engage in over 15 sessions with speakers and discussants contributing to over 60 topics aimed at finding the pathways that deliver the most traction in the drive to generate momentum and achieve progress in line with the Summit’s theme, “Unleashing Africa’s Fintech and Digital economic potential”.