Accra, Jan. 20, GNA - Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), a project- financing public institution, is to focus on the funding of yellow maize production this year to support the country's poultry and livestock industry.

To this end, VCTF has earmarked one million dollars to support maize farmers in the middle belt, as well as the northern sector to produce the yellow maize variety, which would be processed into livestock feed to support the industry.

Mr Daniel Duku, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VCTF, who announced this at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, said this formed just a percentage of the core activities VCTF had earmarked for the year, which it dubbed "Double Action Year".

Mr Duku said VCTF would focus on the expansion of its value chain activities, adding that the vegetable sector would receive priority intervention in agro-ecological regions, which had more comparative advantage, to improve production.

He said discussions were on-going with key players in the agricultural sector, such as the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Commodity Brokers, including National Food Buffer Stock Company (NAFCO), to explore possible collaborations to work closely to leverage technical resources, including market opportunities, to augment the existing market outlets.

Mr Duku said the focus on yellow maize followed previous successes it recorded in the financing of sorghum and soybean where 12,600 tons of the former had been produced and sold, integrating an estimated 8,000 smallholder farmers into the global supply chain of local industries with ready market.

He said the VCTF, which was established in 2006 with a seed capital of GHc22.4 million, was currently in partnership with local and foreign investors, and created a pool of GHc83 million to support the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). It also established five venture capital funds and invested 17 million dollars.

"To date, more than 1,000 direct jobs have been created by a total of 39 portfolio companies," the CEO said.

Focusing on areas of engagement in the year, Mr Duku said the VCTF would launch an Angel Investor Fund aimed at attracting high net-worth individuals as "Business Angels" to invest in SMEs.

He said the move was in recognition of the need to complement government's efforts toward supporting SMEs, adding that VCTF would continue to secure additional funding through its public-private partnership engagements to increase its total pool of funds to exceed 100 million dollars to support SME investments.

He said the VCTF would intensify its monitoring efforts, as well as collaborate with top educational institutions, to build capacity for its portfolio managers through entrepreneurial development and capacity building programmes to ensure efficiency.

On industry, Mr Duku said the VCTF would establish and deepen relations with various professional bodies such as the Association of Ghana Industries, Private Enterprises Foundation and Ghana Bar Association among other third-party service providers, in the development of the venture capital industry.

He said the VCTF would encourage and support fund managers to list on the Ghana Stock Exchange and establish Venture Capital SME round tables in all the regions to enable portfolio companies and potential entrepreneurs to network.

The Chief Executive Officer announced that the VCTF would collaborate with various industry associations and other stakeholders to institute an SME Awards Scheme to honour Ghanaian SME entrepreneurs who established and sustained successful profitable business. He said the VCTF would also intensify its public awareness campaign to educate SMEs on the benefits of equity investment and attract more funds from financial institutions.