The Export Development and Agricultural Investment Fund (EDAIF) has held a regional stakeholders meeting to sensitize prospective export and agricultural investors on how they can secure funds to finance and expand their businesses.
EDAIF is under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and was established by Act 582 on October 4, 2000 to provide financial resources for development and promotion of export trade in Ghana.
The Act was amended on October 25, 2011 to include the provision of financial resources for the development and promotion of agriculture relating to agro-processing.
In an interview after the meeting, Dr. Abdul-Nashiru Issahaku,Chief Executive Officer (C.E.O.) of EDAIF told the Ghana News Agency that the program was to sensitize and create awareness on the potential benefits of DAIF and what they can do to boost their business.
He said the investment fund was created to assist Ghanaians who wanted to add value to their agricultural produce, adding that so far 765 projects totaling about GHC3million had been provided by EDAIF.
Dr. Abdul-Nshiru said expansion of human resource capacity to be able to respond to the increased volume of application and getting people to know much about agro-processing and credit facility are their major challenge.
"If we are able to add value to our produce, consume it locally and export some, then, it will be a huge way of controlling the balance of trade, create employment and improve the income of Ghanaians."
Dr. Abdul-Nashiru said EDAIF used the banks as their intermediaries to provide the funds, adding that lack of properties to be used as a collateral prevented many prospective beneficiaries from accessing the fund, hence, they had put measures in place to eradicate the problem.
He explained that EDAIF had made provision like Exim-guarantee to replace the collateral.
The C.E.O. said EDAIF had made technical provision to bring experts and equipment to train people on how to convert raw produce into high value produce.
Dr. Abdul-Nashiru advised the stakeholders to contact EDAIF whenever they were in doubt and needed assistance.