The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, has guaranteed that players in the tourism and hospitality sector will gain from the 600 million cedis stimulus package reserved by the government to support Small and Medium Enterprises.
The hospitality sector, particularly in the Greater Accra Area, shut down their facilities and laid off casual staff throughout the partial lockdown, due to the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their organizations.
Although the three-week partial lockdown has actually been lifted, the restriction on a public event, in addition to the closure of the country’s borders which are still in force, suggesting that tourists are not entering into the nation to lodge into these hotels; and also conferences can not take place, thus minimizing income.
Already, an evaluation of the financial impact of COVID-19 on the sector has actually been carried out and the report turned over to the Ministry for suitable action.
Speaking to some stakeholders in the industry, the Minister for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Barbara Oteng-Gyasi, stated a discussion has been held with the National Board for Small Scale Industries to detail the methods on how one can request the funds.
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“The government is working very hard to support the sector because they recognize the importance of the tourism sector to the economy. And the initial support which has come in from government being the 600 million Ghana cedis support has been dedicated to the small and medium enterprises sector because they recognize that you are really suffering and you need that support to thrive,” she said.
“So we are going to engage the National Board for Small Scale Enterprise which will be at the forefront of the disbursement of this facility. We are going to have them to take you through the processes that you need to go through in order to access that facility so that in the interim even as we are waiting for the major interventions for the sector from the government after COVID-19, you will have some support during this very difficult period,” she added.
In the wake of the pandemic, the government announced the soft loan scheme of up to GHS600 million for small to medium scale enterprises.
Addressing Ghanaians in a nationwide broadcast on Sunday [April 5, 2020] on further measures to mitigate the spread of the virus in the country, President Akufo-Addo said the scheme will sustain the country’s affected industries and address the distraction in economic activities caused by the pandemic.
The Scheme will have a one-year moratorium and two-year repayment period for SMEs.
