Business owners have been advised against trying to expand their enterprises with funds from the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP), but rather use it to cushion their businesses against the adverse effects of the pandemic.

Chief Executive of the National Board of Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, said some business owners have been unable to access the CAP because the reasons they provided for the funds were not sound.

“We’ve been clear as to this is not the time for expansion but it is a time to actually hold steady and sustain your business and hold your business. So the funds we’re providing goes towards that,” she said.

Kosi Yankey-Ayeh made the remarks during a webinar organised by Ecobank Ghana Limited on Friday, August 21, 2020.

“We’ve had to go through and also go through the process with the participating financial institutions to ask the right questions so we can differentiate from what is genuine and what is not,” she said.

Ms Yankey-Ayeh also said the NBSSI has been working closely with Associations trying to use their data to separate the genuine businesses from the others.

“We’ve also realised the need to work with the Associations and it’s one of the things the President announced in March when he said we should work and design a product which will come up to compliment the businesses,” she said.

About 64,196 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have so far received their share of the special CAP fund set up by the government.

As of July 22, the NBSSI said it had successfully disbursed some GH¢57.12 million to 64,196 successful applicants (made up of 17,526 male and 46,670 female business owners).

The beneficiaries, who were selected out of the 715,795 applications, received an average of GH¢889.80 under what is known as the Adom Micro Soft Loans for micro-enterprises for the GH¢1 billion CAP business support scheme.

The special fund is categorised into Anidaso and Adom special loans, with an interest rate of three per cent, payable within two years after a moratorium of one year.