Accra, Dec. 22, GNA - The Venture Capital Trust Fund and three partn= ers on Tuesday said they had raised 10 million dollars in the first closing of the Ebank= ese Venture Fund, an investment fund designed to spur the growth of the Real Estate sector. It comprises a four-million-dollar investment from the Fund and two million dollars each from HFC Bank, Ghana Union Assurance and WBD Investments.

The Ebankese Venture Fund hopes to raise at least another 15 million dollars from private investors within 15 months to bring the total value of the fund to between 20-25 million dollars, Nana Osei-Bonsu, CEO, VCTF said at the signing of the shareholders agreement.

He said the specialised fund, to be managed by Oasis Capital Ghana, would focus primarily on assisting small and medium scale enterprises engaged in the real estate development sector.

"This is a great start for a fund that will strengthen the country's position to work in reducing the huge housing deficit," Nana Osei-Bonsu said. He said at least 30 per cent of the funds would be invested in other ventures to stimulate growth.

Nana Osei-Bonsu announced that the Board of Trustees of VCTF had leveraged the government's endowment of GH¢22.4 million to partner the private sector for an additional

GH¢40.5 million for investments. He said the Public Private Partnership (PPP) was the first in the country, where a government institution had leveraged its resources with the private sector to create more funds than it was endowed with.

Nana Osei-Bonsu explained that as a result of the PPP, the Venture Capital Industry had grown overnight with a total fund of nearly GH¢60 million to be sourced= out by qualified

SMEs. He said VCTFs offered technical assistance to SMEs in best business= practices and

professional service through training and capacity building for staff, monitoring as well as

contract services. Mr. Matthew Boadu Adjei, CEO of Oasis, said: "The management of Oasi= s Capital is

bringing an additional 500,000 dollars to the table". The Venture Capital Partnership includes; the Activity Ventures Fina= nce Company,

Bedrock Ventures Capital Finance Company, Gold Ventures Capital Limited a= nd Fidelity

Equity Fund II.