AGI calls for establishment of Industrial Bank

The Association of Ghana Industries is calling on government to speed up processes for the establishment of an industrial bank.

According to the AGI this would help address the challenges of access to funding its members face.

Speaking to Citi Business News, Director of Business Development Services, Johnson Opoku-Boateng, said government ought to come through with its request, so they can be well able to take advantage of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement.

“As l speak to you, we are still struggling with banks identifying projects that l think they should be able to support AGI with. As l speak, still we have business banks that are stuck because still in terms of risk assessment and so on and so forth they are not ready to give that amount of money for industry to thrive so that is a major problem.”

He stated that, “What the government has already said in the past, AGI wanted to come out with an industrial bank, fortunately, the government has said that, this is one of the plans that they intend to, so we are expecting the government to put together the industrial bank and when it is an industrial bank obviously then the policy and idea behind that will be to support industry. We are also envisaging as time goes on with the AfCFTA coming up, the banks will take the opportunity to actually give money to industries to actually upgrade and expand and for those who are having very credible products to be able to start their production.”

AGI earlier indicated that establishing an industrial bank will also accelerate the goals of the government’s ‘One District One Factory’ initiative.

It indicated that such initiative to boost industrial growth needs strong financial backing for sustainability.

The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) is a voluntary business association of over 1,200 members, made up of small, medium and large scale manufacturing and services industries in agro-processing (food and beverages), agri-business, pharmaceuticals, electronics and electrical, telecommunications, information technology, utilities, service industries, transport, construction, textiles, garments and leather, banking and advertising.

As the leading voice of manufacturing industries in the country, AGI is dedicated to:

• Advocating policies that advance the growth and development of industries;
• Facilitating international trade through exhibition of member products in countries across the sub-region;
• Strengthening national industry associations through the sharing of knowledge, experience and critical information;
• Providing members with a vast network of contacts, especially in the West African sub-region;
• Hosting the industry and technology exhibition to promote members’ goods.

Source:Citibusinessnews