REMARKS BY HON. MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC PLANNING, HON. KWADWO BAAH WIREDU, ON THE OCCASION OF THE SIGNING OF THE LOAN AGREEMENT BETWEEN GOVERNMENT OF GHANA AND ITALY FOR THE GHANA PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT CREDIT FACILITY OF EURO 20.0MILLION AND A GRANT OF EURO 2.0MILLION

A. SALUTATIONS

Colleague Ministers
His Excellency The Italian Ambassador
Directors and Heads of Organizations
Invited Guests Friends from the Media
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen;

I wish to welcome you all to this signing ceremony.

B. INTRODUCTION
His Excellency, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my singular honour and privilege to make these few remarks on this occasion of the signing of the 2nd phase of Italian support to the Ghana private sector development.

C. BACKGROUND
Ladies and Gentlemen, you may recall that when H. E. President J. A. Kufuor assumed office in 2001, he committed himself to ensure the success of the private sector. He therefore named his term of office at the Presidency as "the Golden Age of Business". Since then government's economic and financial polices have laid a solid foundation for re-Iaunching a viable, robust and sustainable environment that has signalled to the business community that Ghana was ready to do business with the rest of the world.

D. THE €20.0MILLION FACILITY FOR SME's
The acquisition of this loan (€20million) and a grant of €2.0million to support SMEs is the result of H. E. President Kufuor's intervention. He made a personal request to the Italian authorities in December 2006 to continue to support the development of the private sector with additional funding following the successful implementation of the €10.0million facility signed in September 2003.

E. TERMS OF THE LOAN
The terms of the credit facility are;

• Loan Amount	-	€20million
• Interest Rate	-	0%
• Repayment Period	-	36years
• Grace Period	-	20years
• Grant Element	-	83%
• Additional Grant of	-	€2.0million
• Gogh Contribution	-	€220,000

This concessionary soft loan will be used by the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to provide long term credit to finance investment projects of SMEs in the private sector. The Technical Assistance (TA) of €2.0million grant will be used to strengthen the SME sector through the ICT part cluster at Tema and Kumasi, the development of entrepreneurship and business development services to SMEs and the building of MOTI/PSD staff capacity in SME development.

F. COMMUNICATION
The detail of the facility regarding eligibility and procedures for accessing the funds will be provided through various public seminars, workshops for SMEs across the country as well as in the print, radio and television media.

E. BENEFICIARIES
This facility will benefit small and medium enterprises who need capital to expand their businesses at a lower interest rate between 8-12% payable over a period of five years. To assist in the development of the Northern part of the country, emphasis will be put on SMEs in the Brong-Ahafo and the 3 Northern Regions. SMEs owned by women will have preferential treatment in terms of a 1 % reduction in interest rate.

G. CONCLUSION
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe that the country has been put on a strong footing now and with hard work and dedication, we can eventually reduce poverty and transform the economy into a middle income status by 2015 for the benefit of all Ghanaians. Your Excellency, may I take this opportunity to thank you and the Italian government, on behalf of the government and people of Ghana, for your continued support for our development efforts.

Thank you for your attention and long live Ghana-Italy bilateral relations.