Gov’t launches SME High Growth Programme
Businesses with potential to export, expand their markets, grow at an accelerated rate that can create employment are eligible to apply for government’s newly introduced SME High Growth Programme under the Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP), CEO of Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Kosi Yankey-Ayeh has said.
The SME High Growth Programme is a Challenge Fund, funded by the World Bank and managed by the GEA, with the aim of the grant scheme to support productivity and competitiveness enhancing initiatives by high growth SMEs to accelerate their growth.
Speaking in an interview during the national launch of the SME Grant Programme in Accra on Wednesday, she said “We want to make the emphasis on technical assistance because more and more, we realise that people want the funding -but we don’t want it to be only focused on the funding because it does not solve the problem.
To be able to transform and accelerate growth, we need technical assistance, we are looking at people who are really committed to want to go through the technical assistance programme to be able to transform and we take it to the next level.”
The SME High Growth Programme will target high growth SMEs across ICT, Agribusiness/Agro-processing, Education, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage, Textile and Garment, Construction, Tourism and Hospitality, Trade/Commerce of locally produced goods, Transport and Logistics, Healthcare or Pharmaceutical industries in Ghana.
Basis of Assessment
Enterprises shall be defined and differentiated by these three key variables; employee size, annual sales/turnover amount, historical productivity, financial growth and exports.
Required Information
A business Tax Identification Number (TIN),Business Registration Certificate or Certificate of Incorporation, all shareholders and directors of the business must have and supply their Ghana Card Number, in lieu of which their Personal TIN must be supplied, financial statements or income statement for the years 2019 to 2022.
All business owners must have valid identity documents issued by a Ghanaian government authority such as passport or the Ghana card.
SMEs with majority Ghanaian shareholding (51 percent or more) are eligible to apply to the SME High Growth Programme. Applying SMEs must be registered under Ghanaian law as a limited liability company, a partnership or sole trader and must be majority owned by a Ghanaian national.
The new SME High Growth Programme is designed to build on and consolidate the successes so far. It designed to provide training and capacity building necessary to lead to operational efficiency of the enterprises, boost their competitiveness and scale up their operations for further job creation.
Over GHS 65 million has been disbursed/committed to 800+ SMEs between September 2021 to December 2022.
Through this partnership a grant support of GHs160m equivalent of US$20m has been earmarked for the flagship SME High Growth Programme targeting SMEs nationwide, for general training, capacity upgrades, consulting, and financing for selected and qualified SMEs.
The Grant Programme’s support is expected help at 2000 SMEs to become investment ready (capable attracting both local and foreign capital into their business), increase sales and more importantly build their capacities to export and culminate into job creation and job sustainability.
The criteria for selection include, the entrepreneur must have majority Ghanaian shareholding (51% or more) in the business, must be registered under Ghanaian law as a limited liability company, a partnership, or sole trader.
Applicants are encouraged to read the detailed eligibility criteria to determine eligibility before applying, Small enterprises should demonstrate an employee size of 6 – 30 and/or annual sales between GHS 180,000 – GHS 7.2m, Medium enterprises should demonstrate an employee size of 31 – 100 and annual sales between GHS 7.2M – GHS 21.6M.
A Deputy Trade and Industry Minister, Nana Ama Dokua Asiamah-Adjei who launched the programme, reiterated government’s commitment to fully implement all initiatives under the Ghana Economic Transformation Project, including the Grant Programme, for the full benefit of SMEs across the country.
“From the policy point of view, the Ministry of Trade and Industry will do the needful just as GEA will undertake the direct implementation of the GET Project in line with Government’s priority to support achieve economic transformation.
I like to admonish and encourage all beneficiaries to use every Cedi of grant received for the intended purposes. That way, I firmly believe without any doubts that SMEs will be able to grow and expand their operations with full gains. Whiles, Ghana at large and the citizenry benefits most through jobs and wealth created, foreign exchange earned from value-added exports and much more.”
