Omini Bank boss urges banks to give quick soft loan to SMEs

Chief Executive Officer of Omini Bank, Philip Oti-Mensah has urged banks to lead the charge in making available a quick and soft credit facilities for Small and Medium Scale business to enable them to broaden their capital base.

According to Mr. Oti-Mensah, the SME sector employs more than 80% of the employable population whiles contributing more 61% to the country’s GDP, so huge capital investment in the sector will enable it to harness its full potential.

‘The SME sector employs more the 80-90% our employable population contributing more than 61% to GDP but its even going down. We can empower our SMEs to harness its full potential if we make the right financial packages for them. ’

Mr. Oti-Mensah who was speaking at the 2017 International SME Business Network organised in Accra under the theme "Facilitating economic growth of SMEs through global partnership" noted that most financial institutions have high-interest rate credit facilities hence the inability of SMEs to access the loans.

"We have over 500 micro finance company, over 30 banks, over 30 saving and loans companies, and over 150 rural banks.

There is really access to finance. The challenge rather is the lack of the right financing for SMEs.

SMEs can easily get funding from all these financial institutions but at a very high interest rates. I think emphasis should be the right type of financing", he explained.



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