The Association of Ghana industries (AGI), on Wednesday held an agribusiness financing forum at the Ghana International Trade Fair Center in Accra, to help agriculture business owners to expand their capacities in the country.
The chairman for the agriculture sector of the AGI, Mr. Winfred Osei Owusu elaborated extensively on the reason Ghanaians need to pay more attention to investment in the agriculture sector. He explained that most Ghanaian companies are unable to stand the test of time due to low level of investment by investors and even banks. The high interest rate and collateral demand of most banks are few reasons Ghanaian agribusinesses are not developing well.
In attendance were representatives of agribusiness institutions in the country. Presentations were made by representatives from EDAIF Ghana, Welcome 2 Africa, USAID-FINGAP and AfDB.
According to Mr. Frank Obeng of EDAIF Ghana, there has been numerous agribusiness investment aid provided by EDAIF of which more are yet to come. Presently EDAIF has four products for the Ghanaian people. These are the Research development and Development facility, Credit Facility, Project Facility and Equity finance account.
For Welcome 2 Africa, the Founder, Miss. Bamidele, seized the opportunity to inform Ghanaians of the effort of his outfit to educate Ghanaians about agribusiness investment in Africa of which Ghana will be taking its turn to host on the 17th and 18th of November, 2015. Ghanaians who would attend stand a better chance of networking with other stakeholders in the sector to expand their respective businesses.
Mr. Rick Dvorin of USAID-FINGAP outlined the opportunities Ghanaian agribusiness owners have with regards to USAID-FINGAP to help expand business.
The representative, of African Development Bank (AfBD), Mr. Tabi Karikari also enumerated the opportunities the Ghanaian community has with the Bank. The only unfortunate issue is that the bank is only prepared to finance agribusinesses worth a minimum of $10 000 000. This is unfortunate because most agribusinesses in the country come nowhere near this figure.
The forum was well participated with participants expressing satisfaction with the agribusiness industrialist present.
Meanwhile, Mr. Osei Owusu, chairman of the forum promised participants more of such meetings in the coming years.
By: Zigi Reginald Mawuli
Source: ritefmonline.org
