The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA), Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, says her organization should not be misconstrued as a funding agency.

According to her, even though part of her agency’s duty is to provide Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMES) with funding, their core mandate is to provide business development support.

Business development support refers to support for the growth of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises through training, technical assistance, marketing assistance, improved production technologies, and other related services.

She noted that even as the GEA continues to provide funding for MSMEs across the country, they’re also constantly engaging with MSMEs to find solutions to the various challenges that they face in their operations.

Speaking on PM Express Business Edition on JoyNews, she said “The other thing I want to say is that our work is not only about giving funding. We’re not a funding institution. We’re a business development support, so my focus is on business development support.

“I can give you all the money in this world and you would still not maybe be successful. How do we accelerate the growth of the businesses? That is what we focus on.

“So the funding, yes it comes, but the core of it is how to hold steady your business and that’s what this fund is for and we’ll continue to come up with more interventions.”

Since 2020, the GEA has disbursed over 500 million Ghana cedis to over 300,000 MSMEs as part of efforts to stabilize the economy and drive economic growth even amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.