Tamale(Northern Region) 24 May ?99

The Government has committed 60 billion cedis to the export development fund during this fiscal year to support micro and small scale enterprises.

The money, which will be disbursed through Association of Small Scale Industries (ASSI), will enable the beneficiary entrepreneurs to provide collateral required by the financial institutions for loans to assist them to venture into the export market.

Reverend Samuel Kwabena Fugah, president of the ASSI disclosed this at a national review workshop of the association in Tamale on Saturday.

He appealed to the government to speed up the disbursement process to enable cash-strapped members take advantage of it.

Reverend Fugah called for effective collaboration between the association, the District Assemblies and NGO?s in order to achieve objectives of the vision 2020 development document.

Rev Fugah said the ASSI is assisting the Ministry of Trade and Industry to come out with a policy document to regulate the operations of small-scale industries and other service providers.

Mr Martin Wilde, country resident representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation of Germany, which is offering technical assistance to the ASSI, said the foundation has earmarked over 100 million cedis to support activities of the association this year.

He called on the members to contribute 15 million cedis as a local initiative to be self-supportive in the implementation of their programmes.

The 30 delegates attending the three-day workshop would among others discuss access to credit, capacity building and skills training.