BUSAC rescues businesses

The Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund has pledged to double its grant to the private sector over the next five years, beginning March 2010, to facilitate the development and growth of a competitive, vibrant private sector, B&FT has gathered.

The Fund last year doled out US$8.2 million to 362 businesses in all the 10 regions in the first phase of its operation from 2004 to 2009.

The project is being jointly funded by Danish International Development Assistance (DANIDA), Danish Fund for International Development (DFID) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and aims to broaden the engagement of the Private Sector in its policy formulation and advocacy to promote growth and a vibrant private sector.

Dr. Dale Rachmeler, BUSAC Fund Manager, in an interview with B&FT said: “DANIDA has indeed gone forward to design the BUSAC Fund II, which should begin in March 2010 when they finish the bidding process for the next phase of BUSAC.

“The entire project will still deal with private sector advocacy, and all the sectors within will still be able to submit proposals for funding on a competitive basis. With the expected amount there will be more funds for grants in phase II than in phase I,” he emphasised.

Ms. Hannah Tetteh, Minister of Trade and Industry, last week at the closing session of the first phase of the project in Accra commended the impressive performance of the Fund, which has contributed immensely to growth in the economic sectors of the country.

“There has been clear evidence of growth and development in the private business sector, more especially among Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) over the past few years due to the immense financial and technical assistance from the BUSAC Fund.”

She commended management of the Fund for implementing the support system to improve the performance of public and private sector businesses in the country.

Ms. Tetteh said the Fund had performed a very useful task by way of empowering SMEs to sensitise government on the various constraints and challenges that confronted the sector, leading to various changes and amendments of policies and programmes to address their demands.

“The private sector seemed to be driving government policies and programmes; I hope that there will be enough funding to support a second phase of the project. This would help bring on board new players and also extend the facility to others,” she said.

Dr. Joyce Aryee, Chief Executive Officer, Ghana Chamber of Mines, acknowledged the immense contribution of the BUSAC Fund in relation to improvements in the mining sector.

“The Fund has been extremely useful to the Chamber in its quest to reduce various constraints in the sector.“As a beneficiary of the Fund, the Chamber is advocating a clear and standardised compensation mechanism that would reduce litigation among stakeholders - while ensuring that the communities affected by the project are not made worse-off as a result of mining operations,” she remarked.