Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 31 August 2001 - Small-scale entrepreneurs in Ashanti, who applied for loans under the Small and Micro Enterprise Development Fund (SMEDF), have appealed to the government to prevail upon the First Allied Savings and Loans Limited, managers of the fund, to quicken the pace of disbursement to curtail their frustration.
They said only a few out of the about 300 small-scale entrepreneurs, who applied for the loans about six months ago have been granted the loans.
They claimed they were so frustrated about the slow pace of disbursement that those who could not stand it have stopped pursuing their applications while those still desirous to get the loans were also gradually losing hope.
From the way things were going, they contended, the purpose for which the fund was established would be defeated if steps were not taken to remedy the situation.
The SMEDF, a joint venture between the government of Ghana and Germany was established in 1999 to promote the development and growth of small and micro enterprises.
Each government was expected to provide equal capital towards the fund and the German government made available an initial four million Deutsch marks through the German Technical Co-operation Agency (GTZ).
Four financial institutions, La Community Bank, Prudential Bank, Merchant Bank all in Accra and the First allied Savings and Loans Limited in Kumasi accepted to manage the fund.
An applicant were to receive an initial ceiling of 50 million cedis but was later raised to 80 million cedis with an interest rate of 20 per cent to be repaid within six months to 50 months.
Mr Saeed Owusu-Brobbey, Ashanti Regional Manager of the National Board for Small-Scale Industries
(NBSSI) told the GNA that they were no longer directly involved in the disbursement of the fund.
He said that a team, which evaluated the project early this year expressed dissatisfaction about the delay associated with the process of granting the loans and, therefore, asked the First Allied Savings and Loans Limited to take over and spend a maximum of one month to process all applications for the loans.
When contacted, Atto Bendam, Operations Director and Sarfo Kantanka, Credit Manager, all of First Allied Savings and Loans Limited, asked the reporter to contact the project co-ordinator in Accra and that they had nothing to say.
GRi../
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