Over 5,000 applications received for stimulus packages so far

The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) says it has received more than 5,000 applications from institutions seeking to benefit from the government’s GH¢1 billion stimulus packages meant for small and medium scale enterprises negatively impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Executive Director of the NBSSI, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh more than 1000 people have also reached out to the board for various inquiries on how to access the facility which has been dubbed the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP).

Speaking at the Ministry of Information’s biweekly briefing on COVID-19 in Accra, she said the board has been actively working to ensure that applicants get the best of services.

“We are happy to say that we have received over 1,000 calls as of yesterday, [with] people asking how they can access the platform and how best they can be supported and to address some challenges they have,” she said.

“To date, we have about 5,000 plus applicants on the platform who have registered and are waiting to move to the next stage… We want to assure Ghanaians and medium scale to small enterprises that we are working on this day and night to ensure that they received nothing but the best,” she assured.

The government had earlier announced that a sum of GH¢600million was being made available for the purpose however the amount was increased to GH¢1 billion.

According to Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, the additional GH¢400 million was committed by the some participating financial institutions.

“GH¢600 million was what was initially committed to small and medium scale enterprises as support to help sustain their business, but thankfully, through stakeholder engagement and support of the participating financial institutions, the commitment has increased to GH¢1 billion. GH¢400 million was added by the participating financial institutions,” she noted.

Kosi Yankey-Ayeh said the board is still welcoming more applications from businesses that need support through their website, nbssi.gov.gh/capsupport.

The support comes with a one-year moratorium and two-year repayment period.