This is expected to deepen financial inclusion in the country as more businesses can source for loans from these microfinance institutions and rural banks at a lower interest rate.

This was disclosed by the Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Inclusion Advocacy Centre, Mr Godfrey Crentsil, on the sidelines of an investor’s conference in Accra.He said it was looking at a seed funding of US$ 15 million which it expected to raise from its network of fund managers around the world.

After the set up of the fund, he said, contributions into the fund would be derived from the interest raised, placements and grants.He said it had engaged lots of its international fund managers who were all interested in the setting up of the fund.

He pointed out that before the microfinance and rural banks would be able to access the fund, they would have to go through GHAMFIN and once they went through the criteria, they could access it.

Establishment of an Apex body

The Head of Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department (OFISD) at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), Mr Joseph Amoah Awuah, also speaking at the conference said the BoG was in the process of establishing an apex body that would share the responsibility of supervision of microfinance and rural banks in the country.

He said the body would consist of a board which would be made up of representations of all stakeholders and an operating unit which would be tasked with the field work such as collecting and analysing data, and ensuring that there was compliance within the sector.

He, however, indicated that the BoG would still be in charge of providing the licensing and regulations but the role of supervision would be shared with the apex body.“It is not possible for one institution to supervise all of them effectively,” he stated.

Investors’ conference

The conference, which was organised by the Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network (GHAMFIN), in collaboration with the Financial Inclusion Advocacy Centre, was aimed at providing the donor community and investors the opportunity to share their projects with the Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs).

The Executive Director of GHAMFIN, Mr Yaw Gyamfi, said the two days conference sought to afford the donor community and investors, the opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the industry’s development as well as help the MFIs to share their prospects and challenges with investors and also solicit for their support.

He said it would also aim at promoting best practices within the industry to the donor community and investors for possible funding support.Mr Godfrey Crentsil said it intended to build the institutional strength and outreach of the micro finance sector by providing it with a full range of high quality, best practice technical inputs and support.

He added that as an independent support centre, it was committed to promoting innovations, transparency and increased outreach to the poor and also aid in the improvement of the performance of the micro finance industry.