The Ghana Enterprises Agency (GEA) has disbursed about GH? 7 million to more than 70 Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) under the GH ?145 million Ghana Economic Transformation Project (GETP) grant.

The beneficiaries, under the third tranche of the grant, were selected out of over 8,000 applicants after meeting the criteria set by the GEA, the World Bank and other partners.

The latest disbursement brings to about 373 SMEs that have benefited from the GETP.

They are into agro-processing, food and beverage, health care, and manufacturing industries nationwide.

They are receiving grants ranging from GH?10,000 to GH?20,000 to support their operational costs, including purchase of raw materials and equipment.

At an orientation and signing agreement ceremony for the beneficiaries in Accra on Monday, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GEA, MrsKosiYankey-Ayeh, said the disbursement was the latest stimulus package introduced by the government to cushion Micro, Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) of the impact of the COVID-19.

“It started with the 600 million CAP business support where we supported over 300,000 and got support from other partners such as Mastercard Foundation and others.

“To be able to accelerate the growth of SMEs we need to ensure that they are able to have requisite support t0 be able to create employment and also strengthen and transform the economy,” she said.

In the next few months,Mrs Yankey-Ayeh said the Agency would launch the Technical Assistance and the High Growth SME fund as part of efforts to transform the economy and support more SMEs.

“For that intervention programme we are looking at businesses with employees above six and that is what we intend to do to those businesses and really help them. This is the best time to do it.

“Over the past four years, we have increased access to finance from 600 dollars to close to 160million dollars. For us to be able to do that, we need to support businesses that are showing transformation and changes,” she said.