VCTF ends road show in Accra to assist SMEs.

Accra, 14 Aug. GNA- The Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF) Road Show ended in Accra on Tuesday with an aim to provide an effective mechanism for low cost financing for businesses. It is also to provide small and medium businesses the opportunity to facilitate growth in productive sector and create more jobs and generate wealth.

Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said the government was hopeful that the fund would enrich businesses with enough resources to create jobs to increase revenues and ultimately go to replenish the pool of funds available to be down-streamed to business for re-investment.

He said the government's vision of promoting the private sector, as the engine of growth could not be fulfilled without the effective functioning of financial intermediaries.

"We appreciate why banks have a higher risk perception of SMEs and often shy away from administering credit to them," he said. He noted that the passage of the Credit Report Act (Act726) would facilitate the establishment of credit referencing bureau to assist in reducing the risk in lending, thereby enabling banks to lower the cost of capital to the private sector to facilitate required growth in the economy.

Nana Osei Bonsu, Chief Executive Officer of VCTF said the fund was available to all sectors of the economy but priority would be given to certain sectors of the economy in line with the government's economy growth policies and objectives.

He said currently the priority sectors identified are the pharmaceutical, ICT, Agro-processing and tourism industries, which may benefit from about 55 per cent of the total fund available. He said the fund was a joint venture of Bedrock Venture, Activity venture, Gold Venture Capital Limited with a capital of 10 million US dollar each and a 16.65 million dollars from Fidelity Capital Partners Limited.

Nana Osei Bonsu said loans granted by the fund to companies was on a long-term basis so that there was no immediate debt service that constraint the business and carry an interest rate that was below the market rate.

He said any business entity or individuals who needed financing to establish or run business could have access to the fund. The Venture Capital Trust Fund is a scheme established by Government through Parliamentary Act 680.

The road show covered all the ten regions, from Kumasi and ended in Accra. 14 Aug. 07