Mr Prince Akwaaba, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Community Agric Development Ghana (CAD Ghana), producers of locally made cosmetics has appealed to Ghanaians to purchase products made in Ghana to support Small Medium Enterprises(SMEs) for rapid growth.

According to him, SMEs are struggling in business now because initially, distributors either made upfront payment or payment by installment, in a form of pre-financing.

However it is not like that anymore, distributors rather wait for the product to be delivered before they make payment.

He said because the market and economic activities have become slow due to the COVID-19 pandemic people were not buying, adding, "you can send products to a distributor for one month or two with no payment."

Mr Akwaaba who made the call in an interview with the GNA said though cosmetics is a daily use product, customers have their choices, so getting new customers was very difficult.

He indicated that existing customers were those giving SMEs a boost for their businesses to survive.

He described the current season as tough, especially with the coronavirus pandemic, since patronage from the local market was not forthcoming.

Mr Akwaaba said loans taking from the banks come with high-interest rates, therefore, SMEs such as his, found it difficult to make any profit after production.

He appealed to the government to engage National Board for Small Scale Industries and the financial institutions to give interest-free loans to young entrepreneurs to support them grow their business.

He also called for support for SMEs in different forms to boost production so that Ghana could leverage its local products to take advantage of markets in the West African region and the entire African continent.