Commending the bank, the Deputy Minister of Finance in-charge of Wealth Creation, Dr John Ampontuah Kumah, praised the bank for its unflinching support to the SME Sector.
According to the Deputy Minister, who is also a Member of Parliament for Ejisu in the Ashanti Region, SMEs accounted for an overwhelming proportion of employment creation in Ghana.
“In supporting them, CBG aligns with the government’s agenda for SME growth and development,” he said.
The Deputy Minister also commended the bank for partnering with the Ghana Employment Agency in rolling out the YouStart programme thus positioning the bank as the SME bank of choice in Ghana.
Speaking at the event, the for cocoa farmers in the country.
“We also look forward to the expansion of the cocoa farm irrigation project which is currently being piloted on some farms,” the Spokesperson, said.
On the Living Income Differential (LID) where Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire have pushed for addition for farmers from the world cocoa buyers, Alhaji Alhassan, said “While we acknowledge that the Living Income Differential has made some gains as a mechanism to improve cocoa farmers’ incomes, statements from COCOBOD and its partner organisation in Cote d’Ivoire, Le Conseil Café Cacao clearly point to the fact that the pricing mechanism has not yielded its full potential. We wish to see more work being done to fully achieve the deliverables of the LID.”
“We assure our fellow farmers that we shall continue to push for their interest in the ongoing PPRC engagements, however, we plead for patience to be exercised and not give room for persons who seek their personal interest to push us to engage in activities that will destroy our industry,” the spokesperson, assured.
Managing Director of CBG, Mr Daniel Addo, said the centre provides SMEs with a one-stop shop for capacity building and financial support.
According to him, SMEs were the backbone of the Ghanaian economy, contributing about 75 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and constituting almost 85 per cent of businesses in Ghana.
He said, at the SME Centre, experts would provide advisory services to SMEs.
The Managing Director announced that Euromoney’s recent ranking of CBG as 2022 Market Leader in the SME sector was a strong complement to what the bank had done over the last four years, granting over GH¢1.5 billion to the sector.
He also touched on the number of activities to boost the sector, namely the introduction of a programme dubbed CBG Adesua Series to educate entrepreneurs and partnering with Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) to disburse concessionary loans totaling GH¢154 billion to 34,000 SMEs.
The guest speaker, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry in charge of Micro and Small and Medium-scale Enterprises, lauded CBG for the initiative.
“I am particularly excited about the bank’s focus on prioritising support towards Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) promotion for national development because the growth of our MSMEs largely depends on the financial support that is needed to be injected into viable and high-growth firms as well as start-ups. I wish to congratulate CBG for its profound support for the promotion of MSMEs in the country,” she said.
The Deputy Minister further indicated that she would personally visit the Centre to see how Entrepreneurs were faring.
Earlier in the day, CBG also commissioned its plush Trade Fair Branch located on the Giffard Road.
The branch re-emphasises the bank’s commitment to superior customer experience and convenience.
The Managing Director indicated that the bank was embarking on a bank-wide standardisation exercise to project the branches by making them more customer friendly.
Present at both events were, the Deputy Managing Director, Corporate Resources, Madam Nana Ama Poku; Director, Retail and Business Banking Mr Emmanuel Nikoi; Director, Global Markets Mr John Zigah; Director, Operations Mr Samuel Barketey; Director, Information Technology Mr George Mensah, general managers and heads of departments of CBG and some customers of the bank.