Kumasi (Ashanti Region) 5th July '99

Only 5.9 million dollars out of the 24.9 million dollars of the Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) Credit Assistance Project fund has been disbursed or committed since its establishment in August 1996.

This represents about 24 per cent of the amount.

According to Dr K.A. Salami, the Project Manager, the Ministry of Finance as a result, is contemplating either to re-allocate the remaining 19 million dollars among beneficiaries, taking into consideration budgets they submitted.

The Ministry is also considering extending the project completion date of June next year to a more realistic time.

Dr Salami was speaking at the opening of a four-day Africa Regional Conference of Opportunity International Network (OIN) in Kumasi on Friday.

The conference organised by the Ghanaian affiliate of the network, Sinapi Aba Trust, a small micro credit development agency, is being attended by 40 participants from Malawi, Zimbabwe, USA and France.

It is under the theme "Living our calling in a changing world".

Dr Salami explained that the project was established to enable the target institutions to get financial assistance in the form of loans and grants provided by the International Development Agency (IDA) of the World Bank.

Under the project, the selected financial institutions would be helped to become more efficient as part of efforts to improve the overall performance of the country's financial system.

It was hoped that through these efforts more savings would be made to form the basis for private and public sector investment.

Dr Salami said at the inception of the project, about 3.75 million dollars was set aside for micro/rural finance which shows government commitment to help the rural poor.

Dr David O. Andah, Director of NBFI of the Bank of Ghana, said the banking law is under review adding that the operational guidelines for non-bank financial institutions have been reviewed.

He said to enable NGOs in the micro finance sector to encourage the habit of saving among their customers and to accumulate funds, they should register as corporate bodies and to seek license to operate as savings and loans companies.

Dr Andah explained that unless NGOs upgrade their status to that of savings and loans companies, they couldn't rely on savings as a means of weaning themselves from donor funds, which is the main support for their operations.

Mr Kojo Yankah, Ashanti Regional Minister said attempts by government to assist distressed enterprises with the Business Assistance Fund (BAF) have not been very successful because of the refusal of some beneficiaries to repay the loans.

He appealed to enterprises, groups and individuals to be sincere to ensure the sustainability of the Sinapi Aba Trust.

Mr Kwabena Darko, chairman of the board of OIN, said the Network is a global Christian organisation mainly involved in granting small credits to operators of small and micro enterprises in developing countries.