Difficulty in accessing credit re-emerged as the topmost obstacle restricting growth of businesses, the 2012 Association of Ghana Industries’ (AGI) Business Barometer Indicator (BBI) revealed on Thursday.

The fourth quarter report added that prevailing rigid requirements demanded by commercial banks in the country had resulted in low access to credit by the private sector.

The AGI’s BBI measures the level of confidence in the business environment and predicts short-term business trend.

It simply expresses the state of the business climate in one number, ranging between

+100 and –100 and calculated out of “current” business mood and “expectations” for the future.

The report, which was made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, indicated that, as a result of the difficulty in accessing credit, most small and medium scale enterprises had resorted to non-banking financial institutions, whose interest rates are “very prohibitive.”

“This development renders businesses operating in the country non-competitive,” it added.

The AGI recommended that Government needed to give tax incentives to commercial banks to entice them to allocate greater proportion of their credit portfolio at competitive rates to the private sector as a way of remedying the situation.

On the perception of business performance, the report said chief executive officers of various institutions were optimistic of their performances going into 2013.

It revealed that more than 67 per cent (the highest in 2012) of the executives interviewed in 2012 expected their businesses to perform better in 2013 as compared to the previous year.

“The respondents attributed their optimism to an expected improved market; falling cost of raw materials; and an enhanced purchasing power,” the report added.

Interestingly, more than 29 of respondents said the performance of their businesses in 2013 would remain unchanged when compared with that of 2012.

“Their indifferent position was assigned to a probable unchanged: market condition; cost of raw materials; and depreciation of the cedi,” it said.

The report said access to credit; poor power supply and high cost of raw materials were ranked first, second and third, as the topmost three challenges limiting the growth of businesses in the country.

It showed that efforts needed to be geared towards eliminating the challenges.

On sector by sector challenges, access to credit, high cost of raw materials and cost of credit maintained first, second and third positions as the topmost challenges restricting growth of firms in the agriculture sector.

In the construction sector, delayed payment, lack of contracts and access to credit were ranked first, second and third, as the key factors rendering the operators non-competitive.

Appearance of delayed payment, as the topmost challenge in the sector, was shown as disturbing due to the fact that contractors might find it difficult to service their loans on time.

“This development could lead to increased cost of doing business as interest rates paid on their loans increase geometrically,” the report revealed.

It said the manufacturing sector operators identified poor power supply as the single most important obstacle increasing their costs of production.

High cost of raw materials and high level of taxation were also ranked second and third by chief executive officers of the sector, whilst low purchasing power was ranked 10th.