Accra, Dec. 21, GNA - The Business Sector Advocacy Challenge Fund (BUSAC) has so far expended about 13 billion cedis on programmes to assist business, trade and media associations to carry out advocacy on issues affecting them.

Jean-Luc Aldorf, Fund Manager, BUSAG, who disclosed this during a briefing for journalists in Accra on Wednesday, said the Fund aimed to strengthen advocacy capacity of the Ghanaian Private Sector, to ensure that an enabling environment existed for businesses to thrive. Besides it helps in the improvement of the private sector by assisting to remove bottlenecks at all levels of administration and that of the private sector itself.

The official Development Aid Organisation of Denmark (DANIDA), Department For International Development of the United Kingdom and the United States Agency for International Development provided money for the fund.

Currently an amount of 11 million dollars is available for disbursement until October 2008.

Mr Aldorf explained that associations would have to provide accurate information with relevant supporting documents against the important criteria of resources needed, effectiveness, relevance and impact budget among other things.

He said associations without in depth knowledge in the preparations of business plans were assisted to draw up the programmes. Mr Kofi Atua-Ntow, Communication and Media Officer of BUSAC, said the briefing was to deepen the understanding of the media about advocacy and the assistance being provided by the Fund in that direction. He urged media practitioners to be advocates of the private sector by putting on the agenda issues affecting the sector.