By Bright Ntramah
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has announced GHS 8.2 billion support package for small and medium-scale enterprises in Ghana.
As part of the package, the Ghana Exim Bank will be supported with some 700 million Cedis to offer SMEs highly subsidised financial support for both capital and operating expenditures and offer capacity building to programme beneficiaries.
A dedicated window for the 1D1F initiative is also to be set up to ensure optimal synergies within this structural project.
President Akufo-Addo noted that the Ghana Enterprise Agency will be supported with 230 million Ghana cedis and will target high-growth SMEs employing 100 persons or more with small-scale grants and loans of up to two years at highly subsidised rates.
President Akufo-Addo made the announcement in Accra at the launch of the SME Growth and Opportunity Programme.
The Programme has been designed to achieve results, drawing from lessons from past programmes and the challenges faced by SMEs. It prioritises coordination between participating institutions to ensure the targeted delivery of financial and technical support across the whole spectrum of Ghana’s SME, from early-stage micro enterprise to well-established small and medium-sized companies oriented towards exports.
The SME Growth programme is also designed to continue operating in the medium-term. In this context, three dedicated funds are being created within GEA, Exim, and DGB to manage the execution of the project and its subsequent initiatives.
A total of eight point two billion Ghana ceids has so far been mobilised for the Programme and will be channeled towards delivering technical and financial support across the three participating state institutions.
The President said the Development Bank Ghana will contribute to the initiative through its newly created MSME Innovate and Grow Fund. It will provide loans of up to five years for SMEs with tailored repayment conditions to support businesses. The loan amount will be decided on a case-by-case basis out of an envelope of one point four billion Ghana cedis.
As part of the Growth and Opportunity Programme, President Akufo-Addo said the Ghana Ex-Im Bank will set up a novel food innovation hub within the next three months to support all MSMEs in the food industry with testing and scaling up production in the Standard Food Processing Pilot Plant. The Food Processing Pilot Plant will be located on the University of Ghana campus and will incorporate installed processing equipment, warehousing space, a testing lab, and a suite for SMEs to interact directly with relevant regulatory authorities.
Through this intervention, government will make the food processing process more readily available, as this capacity-building initiative will ensure that any SME who may not have sufficient capital and technical capacity can pay a one-time fee at the pilot plant to access modern and sophisticated processing equipment that allows the SME to produce at scale while being supported by food scientists and other specialists.
President Akufo-Addo was hopeful that with this pprogramme government can lay the foundations for a stronger economy, underpinned by strong Ghanaian enterprises, creating jobs, and delivering opportunities for its citizens.
“The Akufo-Addo Government is being intentional about supporting SMEs that are too large for small business finance yet too small to attract substantial commercial lending. This initiative aims to create ‘SME champions’ capable of taking Ghanaian products and innovations global,” the President said.
The programme reflects the government’s broader strategy to foster a competitive, innovative, and globally oriented SME sector, which is crucial for Ghana’s long-term economic prosperity. The SME GO Programme is a continuation of the government’s commitment to economic transformation, following previous policies under the post-COVID Plan for Economic Growth (PC-PEG).
The Minister of Finance, Dr Mohammed Amin Adam, said SMEs are the lifeblood of the economy, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure their success. Supporting SMEs, according to the Minster, is crucial to achieving growth and development ambitions.
“We also heard from the African Development Bank another support of 45 million United States dollars. This is testament ladies and gentlemen, to the confidence in the Ghanaian economy. So we’ve gathered here today as champions of a shared vision to create an enabling environment for our micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to thrive.”
The Minister noted that SMEs are the lifeblood of Ghana’s economy, and it is our collective responsibility to ensure their success. “The data is clear, ladies and gentlemen. Supporting SMEs is crucial to achieving our growth and development ambitions,” he added.
“We must be intentional about providing access to financial resources, expertise, and capacity-building programmes that empower them to drive innovation, create jobs, and stimulate economic growth. Ghana’s growth model must evolve beyond relying heavily on foreign direct investment and raw material exports, which can be very volatile and could expose us to external shocks. Instead, we must harness the potential of our own homegrown SMEs to build a prosperous, dynamic, and competitive economy,” Dr Amin Adam continued.
