Ministry initiates Commission to assist distressed industries

The Ministry of Trade and Industry is initiating moves towards the setting up of a "Presidential Commission" to determine how best to re-capitalise distressed industries in the country.

The sector minister, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, announced this when he closed a two-day mid-year review meeting of the ministry's Advisory Board and heads of its implementing agencies like the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), the Ghana Export Promotion Council (GEPC), the Ghana Standards Board, the Ghana Trade Fair Company and the Ghana Free Zones Board, at Elmina.

"A survey has already been conducted on the state of these industries, which have become digressed, due to factors like heavy indebtedness, poor quality staff and managerial skills and obsolete machinery."

The meeting, a follow-up of a retreat the Advisory Board held at Akosombo early this year, deliberated on how far the programme had been implemented.

The Minister expressed concern that about 100 million dollars sourced from the African Development Bank to assist local industries had not been utilised, because many of the industries did not qualify.

He was additionally concerned that about 74 billion cedis, which was to be disbursed to support industries under the Export Development Investment Fund (EDIF), was also sitting at the banks because the banks were reluctant to risk doing business with newly established companies because of the risk of non-payment.

Dr Apraku expressed regret that as a result, the Banks had set rigid terms such as the huge collateral for the disbursement of the funds and warned that if by the end of next month such terms were not relaxed, his ministry would seek a review of the conditions set for the banks for the disbursement of the EDIF funds.

He announced that one million dollars from the HIPC fund had also been set aside to aid up-and-coming entrepreneurs and that 20 youths would be selected for initial assistance.

Dr Apraku said a loans guarantee scheme had also been approved by Cabinet and would soon be put before Parliament to facilitate small-scale businesses to access financial support.

The Minister stressed the need for local businesses to be given assistance to flourish, to improve the nation's economy and urged the banks to be mindful of the social obligations to and relax their conditions.

In an overview of the performance of the various implementation agencies, the Minister was happy that most targets set at the beginning of the year had been accomplished.

He said for instance, the GEPC realised 220 million dollars of the 500 million dollars targeted from exports this year, while the NBSSI had also been able to set up 24 of the 25 additional business advisory centres targeted.