WA, April 8, GNA - The Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Project that has been initiated by the Government to provide essential financing and technical support to facilitate the development of these enterprises throughout the country has been launched at Wa. Under the project, the Government of Ghana, in collaboration with the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and other development partners are providing a total of 118.9 United States dollars to support the development of the MSME sector.

Mr. George Hikah Benson, Upper West Regional Minister launched the project on Tuesday on behalf of Mrs. Gifty Ohene-Konadu, Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector Development and Presidential Special Initiatives.

He noted that, despite the importance of MSME to the economic development of the nation, these organizations were faced with several challenges that included inadequate access to finance, lack of markets and poor market information, inadequate infrastructure, obsolete technology, weak managerial capacity, low productivity and regulatory bottlenecks.

Mr Benson urged all agencies and development partners that were supporting MSME to avoid duplicating their efforts by engaging in dialogue and working closely to create a more harmonized support systems for these enterprises.

He charged MSME in the region to aggressively pursue and avail themselves of the opportunities being offered by the government under the project and other interventions, which were all aimed at developing a vibrant and productive MSME sector in the country.

Mr Welbeck Abra-Appiah, a Director of the Project said the Project would generate growth in the national economy and lower poverty levels by increasing the competitiveness and employment levels of micro, small and medium enterprises in the Ghanaian economy.

He said out of 118.9 million US dollars that had been earmarked for the five-year project, 40 million US dollars would be disbursed as loans to qualified MSME, while the rest would be spent on technical support and other knowledge acquisition activities.