The Fund Manager at the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund, Nicolas Jorgensen Gebara, has revealed that the Fund will be closing at the end of 2020.

According to him, the Fund which was set up to strengthen the advocacy capacity of private sector business groups and associations in Ghana will be closing down in order to satisfy government’s vision of moving the country beyond aid to trade.

“Our fund is closing this year as Ghana moves towards trade. So the Fund will be closing, but we are happy with the results we have achieved so far,” he said.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a breakfast meeting by Social Enterprise Ghana with some CEOs and foundations that want to support social enterprises on Tuesday at the Alisa Hotel.

Nicholas Gebara stated that despite their decision to close the fund, they have been able to achieve a lot in the area of creating a legal framework for businesses to flourish, enhanced the competitiveness of SMEs in the country and improved job creation.

He said, “Over the last 12 months we’ve been focusing a lot on the national issues and through our contribution and our support we can be happy that a number of legislative bills have been approved and passed by parliament and cabinet – one of them is the Micro, Small and Medium size enterprise policy which is a very important one.

“The other one is the transformation of the National Board of Small Scale Industries into Ghana Enterprise agency (GEA).

There are other businesses like the insolvency law that has been passed and the Companies Act has also been passed.

“All these have been happening the last 12 months. When it comes to agriculture there’s the Tree Crop bill that has been passed so I believe that the dialogue between the government and the private sector has led to the approval and passing of such laws which is providing the right framework for the private sector to move on and grow.”

He added that through their advocacy, the BUSAC has been able to bridge the gap between the private and the public sector by initiating dialogues between the sectors to ensure that SMEs have the right environment to grow.

“We have contributed to creating a number of platforms, public-private dialogue platforms, one of them is like in the construction industry and one of them is with the Association of Ghana Industries on the Competiveness Council in view of the African Free Trade Agreement that is coming into implementation in January.

“So these dialogues have only one purpose. It is to improve and enhance the competitiveness of SMEs to allow them to grow. The satisfaction of the development partners that are supporting us, Danida the Danish government, USAID and the EU, the European Union are helping Ghana be sustainable in creating revenue, economic growth and job creation which is the ultimate objective of our fund.”