Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this prestigious opportunity. First, I would like to commend the Hon Member who presented this very important Statement.
Mr Speaker, when it comes to the issue of SMEs in Ghana, it is time we give it the needed attention and priority as a country in terms of our state policies, especially when we are trying to find a long-term solution to dealing with the consolidation of our fiscal space. I am saying this because, as stated here, SMEs play an important role in our ecosystem as a country. However, there are so many challenges confronting SME actors in our country today, contributing to the sinusoidal performance of our economy and our inability to be fully independent as a sovereign nation.
There are two main extracts in the Statement that I would like to concentrate on: one, capitalisation, and two, consolidating the various SMEs dimensions in our country. It looks as if we are not leveraging our advantage and opportunity as a country. I am saying this because there seems to be a very big gap between the opportunities that we accord large-scale corporate bodies and these SMEs in our country. If we can realise this and do something about it as a country, it will go a long way to help us attain the long-term economic growth and stability that have been so challenging to us as a country. For SMEs in Ghana, when it comes to the cost of even borrowing, it is not comparable to most of their colleagues within the West Africa sovereignty.
For some of them, the interest rate is beyond 45 per cent and some 50 per cent. Even access to them is a problem. There are inadequate funds on our market simply because of the risk factors that are positioned with them. So, Mr Speaker, if we can connect them, as the maker of this Statement is concerned about, first, as a country, we need to accord SMEs the needed opportunity to, one, have adequate funds, and two, to have funds that come with less cost; costs that can be competitive enough. Some of these things do not even attract investors. They seem to be getting closer to our neighbouring countries because of some of these opportunities. Most of the actors of even this very segment of our socioeconomic framework are not experienced. So, even sometimes they are given funds, the money goes bad. They cannot even pay back because they do not have people who have the knowhow.
Mr Speaker, let us not forget the fact that one of the key functions of performance is ability. So, we can even give them the funds, but without the appropriate orientation and training the monies given to them will go bad, and the sustainability of SMEs in our country can never be realised. Even within the government-owned sector, whether government A or B, we have come to realise that we have a lot of institutions positioning themselves in a way to capitalise these SMEs. I think there are too many. We found out with the previous government, and we are still finding that with this Government.
Can we sit down and try to consolidate the effort of these state-owned institutions that are capitalising these SMEs? Even Microfinance and Loans Centre (MASLOC) can be made like Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) in Ghana, but solely for the SMEs. It has to be properly run—