A year after Ghana announced its first covid-19 case and the setting aside of GH¢1.0 billion stimulus package for businesses, the Ghana Hotels Association says only eight of its members got the money.

President of the Association, Dr. Edward Ackah-Nyamike says he got GH¢3,000, an amount which could not pay for electricity in a month.

He also said the $9.0 million World-Bank-fund for the tourism sector did not also get to them.

“We’re very disappointed because right from the beginning when the NBSSI package was announced, we felt that the peculiar needs of the hotel industry would be lost in this whole maze of industries which the NBSSI was going to support. Because we felt that we had “special needs” in terms of quantum of our operational cost", he told Joy Business.

“So we were hoping that there would be some industry targeted support which the Ghana Tourism Development Project, the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture tried to allocate the $9.0 million dollars, but even that is specific to the industry and has faced several challenges. When it was announced they opened applications and then started with qualification criteria. They disqualified a whole lot of members, based on tax returns and clearance, SSNIT certificate etc.” Dr. Ackah-Nyamikeh lamented.

He further revealed that only eight persons, out of over a thousand membership benefitted from the fund when disbursement begun, though the association was contacted to guarantee for its members.

He indicated that most of the members [hotels association] who got the money had only 10% and he was no exception.

“Some of my members indicated that they had received only 10% of what they asked for. For a small place like mine [hotel}, electricity consumption is between GH¢5000 and GH¢6000 every month, so GH¢3000 I received will go into this. Water bill is almost about GH¢2000, then you talk about supplies, salaries, laundry and others, you’re hitting about GH¢25,000,” he revealed.

Meanwhile, Executive Director for the National Board of Small Scale Industries, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh says the disbursement of the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme (CAP BuSS) is done largely based on the data provided by associations in every sector.

According to her, to disburse money is one of the hardest things to do but it is important that all 9000 applicants get a share of the national cake no matter how small itself.

“I think one of the most difficult things to do in life is to share money for a population. Taking into consideration principles of economics, you have scarce resources and you have many people to give to, so the beauty of this is we had close to 9000 people who applied and you have GH7¢50 million to disburse. In some a way, it provides some form of relief to the people.”