Kofi Ahovi

 The UK-Ghana Chamber of Commerce (UKGCC), in collaboration with the Ghana International Bank (GHIB), has reaffirmed its commitment to driving trade growth and empowering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across Ghana and West Africa through the TradeFAST initiative. The flagship event, GHIB–UKGCC TradeFAST, which took place in Accra, brought together business leaders, policymakers, and financial experts to discuss innovative approaches to SME financing, trade facilitation, and export development. The hybrid virtual and in-person format allowed participation from across the sub-region, ensuring that more entrepreneurs could benefit from the discussions and resources shared. In her opening remarks, UKGCC Executive Director, Adjoba Kyiamah, lauded the strong collaboration between UKGCC and GHIB in advancing trade and SME empowerment. She commended GHIB’s ongoing efforts to ensure that SMEs have access to financing, capacity-building opportunities, and trade facilitation — ess...

  Fidelity Bank Ghana, in partnership with Innohub, has successfully concluded the 2nd edition of the GreenTech Innovation Challenge (GTIC). This reaffirms its commitment to climate-smart finance and the strategic role of technology in ensuring food and economic security. The initiative awarded a total of GH¢1 million in grants to 16 pioneering climate-smart enterprises driving impact across Ghana’s agricultural and environmental sectors. The pitch event, held at the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement at the University of Ghana, Legon, served as a convergence point for innovators, financiers, and ecosystem partners celebrating Africa’s dynamic climate innovation landscape. After a competitive selection process involving 25 enterprises, 16 outstanding businesses were shortlisted for the main pitch, addressing challenges in precision agriculture, post-harvest management, digital financial services, climate-smart agriculture, and value chain optimisation. From these, AgriCentric ...

  The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) has disbursed about  GH¢10 million to 103 small businesses that applied for a portion of the Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP) grant. The beneficiaries were selected after meeting the rigorous criteria designed by the GEA, the World Bank and other development partners of the government. The beneficiaries are mainly owners of small businesses in agro-processing, food and beverage, healthcare and manufacturing and cut across the country.They are receiving between GH¢20,000 and GH¢300,000 grant to support their operational costs, including the purchase of raw materials and equipment. Build resilient businesses At an orientation and signing agreement ceremony for the beneficiaries in Accra on December 19, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GEA, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, said the grant was designed purposefully to ensure that businesses were resilient and ready to help transform the economy. She said the main objective of the grant was ...

The Development Bank Ghana (DBG) has so far disbursed about GH¢245 million to its partner financial institutions for on-lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The disbursement started when the bank was set up in July this year. The Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Kwamina Duker, who disclosed this, said the DBG, in the next six to 12 months, would further disburse about GH¢1 billion of medium to long-term capital to support local industries. He said this in an interview with the media on the sidelines of a capacity-building workshop for SMEs. To date we have lent about GH¢245 million and I think there were two reasons for that — to flush out the pipes and make sure that our initial systems are working. “And in terms of what is in our pipeline, we will probably have three or four times of that — about GH¢1 billion, which we hope to disburse in the next six to 12 months,” Duker said. DBG The DBG, with a seed capital of $750 million from the World Bank, the African Developmen...

  The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has increased the Policy Rate by 250 basis point to 24.5%.   This is the highest policy rate increase since 2017. The rate hike means it will become more expensive to borrow from the banks, a situation that will push the cost of living and doing business in the country further up. Addressing the media, the Governor of BoG, Dr Ernest Addison, explained that the committee reached the decision in order to check the rising rate of inflation as the country negotiates with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for an economic programme. Inflation remains elevated and the balance of risks is on the upside. Although the forecasts are for monthly inflation to continue to slow down, the risks are on the upside, emanating largely from pass-through effects of the currency depreciation, the recent upward adjustment in utility tariffs, and rising inflation expectations”. “The Committee remains committed to re-anchoring in...

  ABSA Bank has got it right. The bank’s business in Ghana is based on a very simple strategy - a strong focus on supporting local businesses and leadership in digital banking. The bank is sentient enough to know that local businesses, entrepreneurship and start-ups, underpin Ghana’s economic growth so it has laid out a clear strategy to become the bank of choice for these businesses. This strategy is working well and has contributed to making Absa the most profitable and consistently high-performing bank in Ghana. Last year, the bank also became the first in the history of Ghana’s banking sector to cross the GH₵1 billion mark in profitability and revenues in the country. Absa’s unique understanding of the needs of the SME market has led to several innovative products and solutions for this specific sector. No collateral policy One such innovation is the bank’s collateral-free loan, which has flourished consistently for many years. Through a partnership with the Mastercard Foundati...

The General Manager of the Venture Capital Trust Fund, Hamdiya Ismaila, has called for reforms in the country’s financial sector to enable it to lend more support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). She said the biggest challenge Ghana faced was a lack of what she described as “a very robust financial delivery system.” Our financial services sector is debt focused, everything in Ghana is about credit but the needs of really building businesses goes beyond credit.” So, we need a well-diversified financial services industry that could support anything from start-ups to early stage, to grow businesses and to mature business. And if we do not have those types of financing available, we probably will not be able to be self-sufficient,” she said at the third in the series of the Graphic Business/Stanbic Bank breakfast meeting in Accra yesterday. It was on the theme, “Living Within Our Means, an Imperative for Economic Success.” Ismaila noted that the missing link in the current structure...

  The Development Bank Ghana (DBG) has begun operations with an initial government equity investment of $250 million. Apart from the government’s initial investment, the bank has also enjoyed some investment from the European Investment Bank, which has provided €170 million; the World Bank, which has given the DBG $225 million, and the African Development Bank (AfDB), which has given a grant of $40-million to the DBG. The coming on board of the DBG is in fulfilment of the government’s plan of increasing the number of banks that will support small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs). The bank’s primary focus will be to support enterprises in agribusiness, information and communications technology (ICT), manufacturing and those businesses that offer high-value services to scale up. President’s charge Setting the operations of the bank in motion at a ceremony yesterday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo charged the new bank to work to transform SMEs into well-functioning, formal a...

The Managing Director of GCB Bank PLC (GCB), Kofi Adomako, has said that the establishment of the Development Bank Ghana (DBG) is timely for banks and also for the growth of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in the country. He explained that the DBG would not be a commercial bank or behave like one; but rather, it would act as a wholesale bank which would on-lend, like many other development banks, to commercial banks. DBG has come at the right time. It is true we have had other banks which tried to play the role of development banks but DBG comes with a big difference. “The difference DBG brings is its independence, governance and the way it was set up,” he said in a statement. Development partners He noted that the development partners that DBG brought to the market were immense. I think the bank has come at the right time and it is going to be a different bank from what we have seen in the past. “DBG is not going to compete with commercial banks but it is going to bring out ...

  Vodafone Ghana is supporting over 50 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) with free premium-grade websites in the month of September. In addition, enterprises will be provided with digital channels to make their services more accessible to a wider audience, ultimately accelerating customers and revenue. In a release issued by the company on Tuesday, it said the move was to provide holistic support to SMEs nationwide and empower businesses to leverage on technology to deliver modern offerings to boost their businesses during the SME month celebration. The Director of Vodafone Business, Tawa Bolarin said explained that every year, her outfit dedicates a month to recognise, appreciate, reward and engage with our esteemed business customers who are uniquely positioned to be the backbone of the Ghanaian economy. In the spirit of partnering together, we have designed propositions, which will enable growth for the businesses of our customers through a series of initiatives,” she ad...