The Ghana Export-Import (GEXIM) Bank, government’s principal export Finance institution in the country has unveiled its 3 year strategic aimed at revamping the private sector, by using an inclusive approach for the creation of 100,000 sustainable jobs and improvement of livelihoods, particularly women in the informal sector as well as strengthening high potential value-chains to advance horizontal and vertical export diversification and support local aggregation for improved food distribution in the country.

The Bank’s strategy is aligned to the government’s 10 point Agenda for Industrial Transformation and also focuses on developing specific sectors such as: Garment and Apparel Manufacturing, Raw Material Base Development for Avocado, Cashew, Oil Palm, Cassava among others.

Ultimately, the Ghana EXIM Bank seeks to support the private sector with a view to improving the country’s economic fortunes and therefore, in choosing enterprises it would support, Ghana EXIM Bank considers three key benchmarks which are derived from development instead of commercial objectives. These are employment creation, value addition through production efficiency and foreign exchange revenue potential.

Crucially however, the bank has in place a strict risk management framework together with efficient monitoring strategies to ensure minimal impairment levels.

Its lending rate is the lowest in the industry at 8% per annum to support export and strategic importation. Each sector the Bank finances is selected based on the potential competitiveness in the West African Sub-region and indeed Africa as whole.

The Bank is focused primarily on raw material base development because it identifies this strategy as the key to sustain agro-processing.

From 2019-2021, the Exim bank plans to give credit support to 100 Small Medium Enterprises with less than or equal to GHC1million each to the SMEs with a demand driven out grower support investment portfolio per each scheme at US$1million.

The bank has set investment priorities to reflect a healthy balance between financial return and impact, facilitate by ‘investing with acceptable discount’ in ‘impact-first and blended-return-focused’ business models within our focus area and attract private capital investment for impact focused projects. It gives out 60% capital, 20% technology and 20% market access to SMEs in the country.

GEXIM was established by The Ghana Export-Import Bank Act 2016 (Act 911). The Ghana Export-Import Bank (GEXIM) was launched to bolster the government’s quest for a feasible and sustainable export-led economy.

Ghana EXIM Bank as a development Bank offers seven (7) main products and services which are Traditional export finance typical of export credit agencies across the world and; Financing of export oriented units (export capacity building), which is non-traditional for export credit agencies.

With its 3 year development plan, the bank is poised to promote foreign trade and investment opportunities and value creation for Ghanaian exporters over a long-term period, which includes; Agricultural Finance, Asset Finance, Working Capital Finance, Performance Guarantee, Retention Bond, Project Finance, Advance Payment Guarantee etc.

For the agriculture finance, the bank would give credit support to, Crop and fish farming, Post harvest management, Processing, Branding and packaging Research and Development, Aggregation and Distribution (distribution networks, transport and logistics) and Export facilitation Local farm/processing equipment R&D, manufacturing, assembly and leasing industry
In the Creative sector, Exim Bank is ready to give credit support in areas such as Woodwork, Textiles, Ceramics, and Leatherwork and is expected to generate 1000 jobs.

Within the agriculture crop sector, it is expected to create 40,000 jobs with a total production volume of 40,000 acres from 8 crops in all the regions, while the fish, livestock and the poultry sector is expected to generate 5000 each with the main beneficiaries been rural and urban women.
That no withstanding, the Auto-Engineering & Metal Works, the crafts sector and the small equipment manufacture, credit and leasing are expected to create 15,000, 6000 and 1,200 jobs respectively.

But these credit supports would not come quite easily, however, management and monitoring will be undertaken with the setup of a Technical Assistance Fund (TAF).

Specifically the TAF will be used for Sourcing for private capital investment; Monitoring and evaluating by independent impact-focused consultants; Business Advisory; Skills development and training; and Investor matching for when impact-first project require growth capital
Exim bank has expressed its readiness to work through with associations like the Federation of Association of Ghana Exporters; Citrus Farmers Association; Ghana Roots Crops and Tubers Exporters Association; Cereal and Legumes Growers Association; Vegetable Producers and Exporters Association; Mango Growers Association; Poultry farmers Association; Livestock Farmers Association etc to make this happen.

For the three year strategic plan, the Exim Bank’s agriculture commodity reference include Sweet Potato, Onion & Vegetables, Sorghum, Maize, Rice, Avocado, Mangoes, Watermelon Soya beans, Plantain, Yam, Peanut etc