Accra, April 7, GNA - Mr Joseph Samuel Annan, Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, on Thursday stressed the need to re-examine the Export Development and Investment Fund's (EDIF) efficiency to ensure that the purpose of its establishment is met.

"There is the need to re-think the relationships of EDIF with the banks to see if there are synergies. But where there is competition then that would not give meaning to the objectives of the fund," he said.

The Deputy Minister was speaking at a meeting organized by EDIF Management and Board of Directors for their beneficiaries to listen to their concerns, problems and suggestions about accessing the Fund. EDIF was set up in 2000 by the Government to assist local exporters and investors to expand their businesses. It has since made available over GH¢164 million to be accessed through designated financial institutions.

Individuals, enterprises or companies that are producers and exporters of goods and services, export marketers and investors undertaking infrastructural projects to provide services to exporters are eligible to access the EDIF credit facilities. Mr Annan said the 2011 budget made provision for GH¢76 million out of which GH¢56 million would be allocated in the form of credit to exporters and producers.

He said there was a lot of government intervention to assist the business sector to take off and urged the beneficiaries to indicate bottlenecks that were impeding their smooth take-off. Mr Agyabeng Antwi-Agyei, Chief Executive of EDIF, said the purpose of the meeting was to interact and create the platform for companies that accessed the Fund to tell them of their problems, frustrations and success stories.

That, he said, would put the Fund managers in a good position to re-evaluate their activities to yield the needed results. He announced that the EDIF Law would soon be amended to include agriculture to enable them to cater properly for the sector. Mr Alex Bernasko, Advisor/Secretary to the Bank of Ghana and EDIF Board Member, said the feedback was necessary for them to determine how well the Fund was doing and how to improve upon their services. "Your problems, concerns and suggestions would be taken on board and we will try to create a mutual awareness to achieve the goals of the Fund," he said. 7 April 11