Wa, Aug. 16, GNA - The Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund has made available 2.4 million dollars to promote advocacy programmes for associations and organisations in the private, labour and media sectors of the economy.

The project, which started on pilot basis in the Greater Accra, Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions in March 2004, is being extended to cover the whole country.

The Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), British Department for International Development (DFID) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) are sponsoring it and has the underlying goal of improving the image of the private sector among the general public.

At its launch and maiden workshop in the Upper West Region at Wa on Tuesday, Mr Ambrose Dery, Regional Minister, said by strengthening the advocacy capacity of the private sector, there was the hope that it would play its role effectively as an engine of growth.

He expressed his joy to learn that BUSAC funded 44 advocacy actions to the tune of eight billion cedis during its pilot phase.

Mr Dery urged beneficiaries of the Fund to ensure that they came up with acceptable innovative advocacy actions that were well designed to address bottlenecks, which had negative impact on their activities. He said it was important that labour movements educated their members on the new Labour Law to promote industrial peace in the Region and the country as a whole.

On the media front, Mr Dery said as the eye of the society, they should identify issues that when removed would smoothen the operations of the private sector.

Mrs Judith Kwawukume, Assistant Manager of the Fund, said BUSAC was part of the business sector programme support, which lent support to the "Golden Age of Business" in line with the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy. 17 Aug. 05