Access to finance is still a threat to the growth of business in Ghana, a survey has revealed. The Global Executive Opinion Survey 2008 conducted by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) among 101 CEOs, saw access to finance as a major issue that needed to be dealt with. The Executive Opinion Survey is a major component of the Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which aims to provide a benchmarking tool for policymakers and business leaders. It is the first time that Ghana is participating in the global survey after AGI was contracted by the WEF as a partner association in March this year. In the poll CEOs were asked to select up to five challenges from a menu of 15 and rank these from one to five in order of importance. Over 30 CEOs ranked access to finance as a priority and this was followed by inadequate supply of infrastructure, poor work ethics, bureaucracy and corruption. The CEOs who took part in the survey cut across a broad spectrum of companies. They included CEOs of public listed companies, Ghanaian-owned companies, European companies, as well as other African companies. Small, medium and big sized companies also took part in the survey. On economic prospects, over 65 per cent of the CEOs said they were optimistic of enhanced growth but the small and medium scale enterprises saw more opportunities than the big ones. Mr Tony Oteng-Gyasi, President of AGI who presented the findings of the survey, said over 500 companies in six regions were invited to participate in the survey but 101 CEOs completed the questionnaire. He said it was revealing that both domestic and foreign CEOs agreed that the problem of finance was critical. Mr Oteng-Gyasi said the survey also showed that more efforts must be made to retain talented people in the productive sectors of the economy while companies needed to spend more money on research and development. There is also need for online government services as well as railroads. Source: GNA