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Page last updated at Sunday, May 19, 2013 3:03 AM //
Mr Hayford Baah-Adade, Board Member of Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) said at the weekend that the Fund?s revised charter could boost the contribution of agriculture considerably to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Speaking to a gathering of agri-business stakeholders in Ho the Volta Region he said the Fund have the resources to support industrious business people countrywide to stop the decline of agriculture?s contribution to national GDP, which he put at 24.6 per cent currently.
Originally, EDAIF was known as, Export Development and Investment Fund, (EDIF), incorporated in 2000 to support only export orientated businesses.
It now has a new mandate to support agricultural related businesses with capacity for agro-processing, warranting the change of name from EDIF to EDAIF.
Mr Baah-Adadey expressed dissatisfaction that Ghanaian shops are heavily stocked with imported fruit juices, when the country has huge capacity to produce and process different kinds of fruits for local consumption.
He said facilities provided by EDAIF are good deals for serious businesses and asked farmers seeking credit from banks to demand that they are linked to EDAIF?s credits and grants, which have very competitive interest rates.
Mr Baah-Adade said the facilities are being managed through the commercial banks and hinted that efforts to involve the rural banks in the disbursement of EDAIF facilities are on- going.
He said the EDAIF team was in the Region as part of a nationwide outreach to get people to know about the Fund and the opportunities it holds for them.
Nana Adwoa Adadey, Research Manager at EDAIF, who presented a paper on categories, range of credits and the approval process said the interest rate is 12.5 per cent as against the? 22 per cent and 27 per cent the banks charges.
She said EDAIF had made arrangements with the National Board for Small-Scale Industries, to guide applicants on the writing of business plans.
A brochure circulated among participants listed eligible businesses as, farmers of agricultural produce relating to agro-processing, marketers of agricultural produce relating to agro-processing and marketers of locally processed agricultural produce for the domestic market.
The rest are investors undertaking an infrastructural project to provide services for agriculture and agro-processing entities, and an aggregator facilitating production from out-growers to agro-processing.
The EDAIF team, which tagged the overture ?a conversation with the Volta Region,? also sent representatives on local FM stations with their messages, besides the well-attended stakeholders meeting.
Source: GNA
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