Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, the Chief Executive Officer, Reroy Cables Limited, on Wednesday commended government’s decision to establish a Guarantee Scheme for business enterprises to survive in the wake of COVID-19.

She said the Scheme would enable businesses in sectors where COVID-19 had revealed opportunities such as the food import-substitution, pharmaceuticals, textiles and garments to take advantage of the support to improve and expand their operations.

In the mid-year budget review on July 23, 2020, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the Minister of Finance, said government, in consultation with the Bank of Ghana, would establish a Guarantee Scheme of up to two billion Ghana cedis to enable businesses to borrow at more affordable rates and undertake the necessary adjustments to survive COVID-19.

The Scheme is expected to complement other arrangements that banks have been making to assist their business clients in response to the monetary policy and regulatory measures introduced by the Bank of Ghana.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Quartey-Papafio said the COVID-19 pandemic had impacted negatively on businesses with some workers laid off while some have had their salaries reduced, adding that government’s intervention would mitigate the effect on companies.

Government in response to the situation is providing a Seed-Fund for a retraining programme to help workers who are laid off to either improve their skills or acquire new skills to improve their chances of finding new jobs.

In addition, the Government, through the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, pledged to work together with the social partners to establish a National Unemployment Insurance Scheme to provide temporary income support to workers that were laid off and also facilitate their retraining.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio, also the Chairperson of Electricals and Electronics, under the Association of Ghana Industries, urged business entities to do aggressive branding and enhanced digital marketing transactions to boost their visibility and continuity in a post COVID-19 era.