The Ghana Investment Support Programme (GHISP) has reaffirmed its commitment to connecting underserved Ghanaian small and medium enterprises to much sought-after capital providers.

The GHISP and British International Investment in collaboration with Pangea Africa, Climate Policy Initiative and Ghana Venture Capital, organized a stakeholder engagement on Climate Finance Opportunities in Ghana and Financing SME Agribusinesses in West Africa.

The engagement which saw panel discussions between public and private capital providers and entrepreneurs on ways to address ecosystem challenges around investing in undeserved SMEs was held at the Marriott hotel, Accra on Wednesday, November 29.

Speaking on the sideline of the event, Senior Consultant at the Ghana Investment Support Programme, David Tetteh, noted that the chief objective of the engagement was to get capital providers understand the framework of climate financing and to connect these capital providers to enterprises that fit the criteria.

This, he said, was to ensure that small and medium businesses engaged in climate positive actions received the necessary funding to scale up their businesses.

“So globally, you know, there is a push, too, for companies to become more responsible when it comes to business practices. You need to care about your environment, you need to care about your society, you need to run your business with proper governance.

“So as part of the Ghana Investment Support Programmes, we want to help get funding for companies that are behaving responsibly by definition companies that are undertaking climate positive actions.

“So we want to help financial institutions and fund managers to understand what it means to for companies to be engaged in climate positive action, what which sectors these companies are operating in, and how they can pick and choose and to find some of these companies.

“So that is the essence of this forum, to brainstorm and disseminate the findings of a research project that we funded and to get collaboration and buy in from capital providers and match them to companies that are looking for funding,” he said.

The event managed by EK Brand Consult, was organized on the premise of findings of a research project carried out by Pangea Africa and funded by GHISP.

John Scicchitano from Pangea Africa who had delivered a presentation on the findings of the said report stated that there was a dearth of investment particularly in private enterprises engaged in climate positive actions.

He said the stakeholder engagement was a necessary platform to brainstorm ways to bridge the gap between the private enterprises and the capital providers.

“Our goal is very clear, more climate finance to Ghana. There’s a great need for climate finance by Ghana’s enterprises now we’re not talking about public sector but private sector enterprises that need capital to grow to generate economic impact and to generate climate impact and we need to move capital into those businesses,” he said.

Earlier, he had called for gender-smart financing for agribusinesses within the climate financing framework.

He explained that as capital providers gear up to take advantage of the opportunities in climate financing, they should be gender sensitive to ensure that women-led enterprises, enterprises that have a large female workforce and enterprises that provide services to women are prioritized in their funding schemes.

“Grants are good and important, but women also run profitable businesses and need loans, and need equity investments and we believe that today’s event will spur that kind of investment in companies that work with women,” he said.