Minister urges women entrepreneurs to patronise credit facilities

Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister, on Thursday urged entrepreneurs, especially women in the region, to take advantage of credit facilities to improve their business. He observed that people from the region were largely hard-working but lacked credit facilities and advised them to embrace such opportunities to transform their businesses. Mr Amenowode said this in a speech read at the launch of a 20 million Euro Phase II Credit Facility for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), under the Ghana Private Sector Development Facility (GPSDF) in Ho. He urged them to use the loans as indicated in their business plans and endeavour to repay to enhance their credit worthiness and sustain the project. Mr Amenowode described the Volta Region as relatively small but with great economic potentials and needed such interventions to enhance its socio-economic situation. He said the region was home to several SMEs with self-employed persons mostly women accounting for about 80 per cent of all employed persons. Mr Amenowode expressed the hope that entrepreneurs especially women, would use available credit facilities to turn their businesses around for the rapid socio-economic development of the region. He reiterated government's commitment to help resolve challenges of SMEs for the country's accelerated development and appealed to stakeholders to support government. Ms Suweibatu Adam of GPSDF said the success of the Phase I gave way for the Phase II with the initial amount increased by 100 per cent. She took participants through eligibility criteria and urged women to apply for the facility because there was a special consideration for women entrepreneurs.