Koforidua, Nov. 03, GNA - The Eastern Regional Branch of the Association of Small Scale Industries (ASSI), has called for a dialogue to streamline the conditions for the disbursement of the Social Investment Fund (SIF) loan.

The loan is under the Urban Small Scale Enterprise Development Project (USSEDP) and being promoted by the SIF through the banks.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Koforidua, Mr Alfred Yaw Kissi, Eastern Regional Secretary of ASSI, said the South Akim Rural Bank, which was in charge of the disbursement of the loans, was operating the project on the same basis it operated other loans of the Bank.

He said this made it difficult for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to obtain financial support from the banks.

He explained that, if the project was meant to increase access to financial support for SMEs, then there was the need for the conditions for the granting of the loans to be repackaged.

Mr Kissi said it needed to be repackaged in a way that would enable the SMEs to benefit and achieve the necessary economic impact which the project was expected to achieve.

He said apart from pre-qualification conditions, beneficiaries of the loan were also expected to meet other conditions of the bank including provision of collateral security, two guarantors and to save a percentage of the loan with the bank with an interest rate of over 28 per cent.

He said the procedure was complicated and if not amended would deny many of its members the ability to access the funds.

Reacting to the complains of ASSI, Mr Ofosu Kwarteng of the Eastern Regional Secretariat of SIF, said the SIF expected the banks to fully recover the loans and therefore they would put in measures to enable them to avoid default in repayment.

He said the SIF was implementing various schemes through the banks including micro-credit facility where one enterprise could access loans to the tune of GH¢ 1,000 and others where the upper limits ranged from GH¢ 3500 to GH¢ 10,000.

Mr Kwarteng said each facility had its own criteria and therefore those enterprises that could not go in for higher amounts could go in for lower amounts where they could meet the conditions.

He said some of the conditions attached to the loans were to enable the SMEs to restructure their operations to conform to modern business practices.

Mr Kwarteng, however, admitted that some of the conditions set by the Bank could also be due to some challenges facing it.

He said that the SIF had organized training for all the implementing banks to help the schedule officers to better understand the policy for the introduction of the scheme.

He assured the Association that SIF was still gathering feedback from the implementers of the loan and when found necessary, a meeting could be organized for any differences to be sorted out.

Officials of the South Akim Rural Bank were however not prepared to officially speak on the issue with the GNA.

GNA

Source: gna - Ghana News Agency